Elite roleplay: Off station

OFF STATION

Your ship, deep space, anything that is not happening inside the Citi Gateway or Ingaba...

General Roleplay Etiquette:

1. Control only the actions of your own character(s). (AKA: God Mode)
This doesn't matter how small the action is, even if it is as simple as scratching their nose or a direct reaction to something else that just happened. This applies to everything from casual conversation to full blown fight scenes. If you'd like someone to do something specific, PM that person, however keep in mind they are completely within their rights to say no. Especially if said action is inappropriate to their character and/or circumstance.

2. Don't brute force your way into another persons RP.
Approaching with a conversation starter is fine, or indeed some other small action. However charging in, guns blazing and disrupting the flow of another person/pair/groups conversation/arc is about as rude as doing so in real life. If something is going on that you'd like to participate in, be subtle about it. Put out a gentle hook for someone to take, but again, be aware that said hook may not be taken. If you fear it was simply unnoticed, PM the person or people it concerns. Or even leave a message in the OOC forums.

3. Good grammar and spelling is preferred.
We're not asking you to be perfect, but please at least demonstrate willingness. no1 iz gna tak u srsly usng txt spk. There's a wide variety of people here, many who speak English as a second, or even third language. There are even some with varying degrees of dyslexia and/or likely other issues that affect spelling/grammar. We accept them all here. However, people who aren't accepted, are those unwilling to accept polite correction. Remember that even a small thing like the placement of a comma, or the wrong use of there/their/they're can completely change the definition of an entire sentence.

4. Accept constructive criticism gracefully and politely.
If someone spots an issue with your writings, they may wish to help you improve that writing. They may do this through PM or even publicly air their thoughts on the OOC forum. If they have taken the time to be polite and explain what is wrong with your writing, the best way to behave is to respond in kind, using the same manner they have approached you with. It means they have taken an active interest in what you have written and wish to see more. Basically, you have a fan!

5. Don't take the actions or opinions of things done IN RP, to be directly relevant to the writers thoughts or opinions.
Basically, if some ones character calls your character a jackass, it doesn't mean the writer thinks you are a jackass. It's a ROLE they are PLAYING. Watch a movie. The argument between the characters isn't an argument between the actors involved. The same applies here.

6. It's not a popularity contest.
Your RP might be bustling with participants. You have 3 people off station in a fire fight, while another 2 are infiltrating the darkest areas of the station, meanwhile a group of 4 others are tracking your movements in an effort to stop you. Good for you, I'm sure it will be a thrilling read! But you know what? Sometimes the absolute BEST work, comes from two RP characters having a simple heart to heart. Both are valid, both are great, but NEITHER is categorically better than the other. Period.


Inara RP Etiquette:

1. Respect the setting and rules of the universe.
Inara is an Elite: Dangerous 3rd Party Tool. The RP Forums are set in the Elite: Dangerous universe. Elite: Dangerous has rules, as any fictional universe does from Lord of the Rings to Star Wars, or Game of Thrones to Star Trek. If you intend to RP within the Elite: Dangerous universe you are bound by the history and rules of that universe. Simply put, this RP forum is bound by the same rules as the game, so if it can't be done in the game, it is not permitted here. This applies to things from a 50Ly Jump Range on a normal, unmodified Sidewinder, to the destruction of entire stations.

2. Respect the characters created by others.
We have a wide variety of characters already here. It's expected that some will be similar, just as it's expected that two characters will be vastly different. Opinions of each persons character will naturally be varied, but all are valid provided they follow the rules of the universe. You are allowed to interact with, or avoid interaction with, any character in the RP forums. But you have no right to belittle others for their creation. You are not an authority figure on writing, nor are you directly affected by another persons imagination. You might not like it, but you MUST respect it.

3. Be caught up on current events before joining in.
You need basic things like character descriptions in order to interact with them. You also need to know what's going on in the surrounding areas. This is simply because the people you are hoping to RP with, might be gearing up to something that you might not want to be part of. Or simply that the most recent post, out of context, could leave a different impression on the goings on than if you gather that context. We don't expect you to read every single post from the beginning of the forums, just enough to get that basic understanding.

4. Either subscribe to, or frequently check, the Roleplay: Q&A and OOC forum.
People may be discussing something relevant to you there, or even discussing you directly. Perhaps someone asked what the general consensus on the existence or non-existence of a certain object. Or we're just chatting about random gibberish. Either way, be aware of it and use it. If you're unsure about something, such as how guns would look and or behave, or even the music selection, use the OOC forum to ask. We don't have all of the answers, but the collective knowledge and logic usually allows us to overcome an issue and come to a decision on what should be allowed. Frontier Developments, and even David Braben himself, don't have the answers to every possible question that can be asked.

5. Large Scale events exploding out of nowhere are a complete no go.
We get it. Everyone wants their character to be noticed and for people to be tripping over themselves to interact with them. In some audiences, an introduction involving you blasting in for landing in a fiery wreckage of a ship, before cart wheeling out and sword fighting 35 Ninjas before whisking off with the local celebrity for a glorious night of passion, is in fact, cool. This is not one of those audiences. It is generally considered better to build your character up slowly over time. Eventually, you might even have a legitimate excuse to fight those Ninjas. Maybe even with other RP participants by your side.

6. Perfect characters are boring.
The point of a character arc, is that it is in fact, an arc shape. One who is morally unquestionable, fully kitted out and an infinite fountain of knowledge, cannot go through an arc. Give your character flaws. Be it a tendency towards befriending the wrong people, or a bad knee that frequently gives out at inopportune moments. It gives readers something to latch onto and empathise with. You can give your character exceptional capabilities at something, but it requires balance. She's a damn good pilot with no equal, but can't drive an SRV for peanuts. It can lead to some very interesting moments between characters, be it heartfelt or comedic.


Other Notes:
It should be noted that there can be exceptions to these points. For example, good grammar when a character is speaking is actually rare. Few people in real life actually speak with perfect eloquence after all. Or previously arranged actions during a fight scene, such as someone stumbling back after a punch. What's key to remember is context.

All in all, remember this is purely for fun. We have some seriously talented writers here, and others whose writing history starts and ends at high school. But many are willing to help out in whatever way they can. All it takes is that you ask nicely.

Also keep in mind that many people who RP here, also have logbook stories related to the character, or characters, they portray. If it looks like there's an "in joke" going on that you're unsure of, it's probably in those.

In fact, some users have even gone to the trouble of creating "alts" to RP with. If you read back far enough, it's usually pretty clear who has and hasn't, and which ones are the "alts". It's therefore not unheard of to see the apparent seizing of control of other characters. If you do spot one, point it out in the OOC section. If intervention is needed, it will be sorted quickly and (hopefully) politely.

Most, if not all RP participants here have Logbook stories pertaining to their character(s). These are for the reading pleasure of anyone who wishes to do so. While it can be useful to read them in order to gain a bit of backstory on a character you wish to interact with, it should not be assumed that your character shares that knowledge. Within the E:D Universe, these Logbooks either don't exist, or are private diaries kept by the characters. Either way, without explicit statements to say otherwise from the writer, your interactions should reflect that your character is in the dark about any information you, the writer/reader, have gained from reading the stories.
Meowers
02 Sep 2023, 2:42pm
"About bloody time," I said on the comms, obviously replying to Aventus, without moving my eyes, still keeping the rifle solidly aimed at the doorway. "Take command of your troops."

"Anyone going trough that door will die. Painfully."

Last edit: 02 Sep 2023, 2:48pm
Venus Duval
02 Sep 2023, 9:02pm
The wait seems like an eternity. There remaining member of the rescue team shift impatiently watching for any signs of the enemy. Diaz and his men approach the doorway as the lights in the ship go dim again. 2 of the raiders rush the door using the cover as darkness and place a large breaching charge around the door. Everyone takes a step back and tucks away into cover.

There is a bright flash as a ball of flame and metal shards tear into the room. Large shards pierce through the hastily built wall and take out a few of the commandos. A bright flash follows shortly behind followed by a deafening boom as several flashbang grenades explode. The room is filled with smoke as 4 smoke grenades go off and billow a thick black smoke concealing any movement from the entry way.

As the commandos struggle to regain their vision Aventus opens fire into the smoke unsure if he he aiming even remotely accurately. James follows suit as several raiders charge through the smoke black clad armor covering their entire body. As soon as they impact the barrier they kick off into the smoke, there are a series of explosions as small shape charges tear through the makeshift barrier. Some of the commandos manage to land some solid hits tearing into the weak points on the armor of their targets.

The heavy guns go silent for a moment until from the smoke Diaz rockets out of the heavy smoke at a surprising rate of speed for someone of his stature. Raiders follow suit and quickly close the distance to the commandos. As both groups collide Diaz rips one of the floor mad wall chunks up and slams it into a few commandos killing them nearly instantaneously. Seeing Kira's massive weapon he hurls a dead commando and a few raiders at her.

Melli darts up and around trying to get an angle on any one of the enemies and manages to find one near the back. She leaps down onto the man and tears into his shoulder. Flesh and bone are separated from the man as Melli shakes her head violently. She releases the chunk of flesh and jams her armored face deep into the freshly opened wound and claws her way inside of the man.

Aventus attempts to pick up the heavy machine gun but is quickly met by an extremely powerful punch snapping his head to the side at such a speed he can't even register what just happened to him. Diaz grabs him by the throat and picks him up.

'Aventus Harkon, coming to finish what we started all those years ago? Too bad Venus isn't around this time to save you.'
Kasumi Goto
02 Sep 2023, 9:40pm
I hid behind my cover as the blast wave passed over us, shards of metal and other shrapnel hitting my cover position, though not enough to compromise it. I poked out of the cover, far enough from the flashbangs that were dropped to only be affected minimally, instinctively activating my scope's thermal vision. It didn't allow me to see through the smoke too well, but enough to make out movement, and be ready to take shots as soon as raiders passed through it.

So one of them fell, missing a large portion of their throat as a hypersonic bullet ripped through the flesh, the head barely held on to the body by a thread. Next shot ripped someone's arm off, making them wish it had killed them. A few rounds of return fire hit, but were absorbed by my shield. I ducked back in just in time to avoid a rocket passing over my head, and returned the favor to the heavy raider that had fired the explosive round, by turning their chest into pulp. A large, bulky figure that I assumed to be Diaz had stormed through too, by now, throwing a dead body at me, with a few raiders following. I caught the dead body by the foot after sidestepping to avoid it, and slammed it into one of the raiders, knocking them to the ground.

Another one charged at me, but missed a hastily aimed shotgun blast, only scratching my shield. I made him pay for his mistake by taking him by the throat and pulling him off his feet, slamming him into the ground with inhuman strength, shattering his neck bones. Let my railgun go momentarily to pull out pistol and knife, dropping the raider that had just discarded the dead commando's body with the former. Shield dropped, but I had to commit or just get shot. Tore the piece of metal I used as cover free from the ground, used it to take a few bullets before I threw it at the third raider, killing him on the spot when it tore his gut apart.

My armor did its job of taking a few hits as I moved toward the fourth raider and slammed into him, taking him into a wall with me. My knife had pierced into his waist, and I shattered the helmet the pirate was wearing quickly, driving my fist into his head hard enough to break the skull. The fifth raider hesitated for just a split-second at seeing such a thinly-built figure tear through a team of elite troopers with ferocity and strength not befitting her in the slightest, and he was rewarded with a few plasma bolts to the body, one of them turning their face inside out.

I retrieved my knife from the raider with the broken skull and picked my railgun back up, to see Diaz hold Aventus by the throat. But his back was facing toward me. I couldn't fire my railgun without risking Aventus, as even the concussive force of the shot could tear one of his limbs off when passing that close to him, but I could use it in other ways. I charged toward Diaz, holding the weapon like a club.

"You should've sent more!"

The slam was powerful enough to send the large man into a stumble, and make his grip on Aventus go loose. I dropped a flashbang at his feet while he recovered, pushed off of his body, and fired into Diaz's back with my pistol, though that did little more than scorch armor plates, and expose some of the cybernetic body underneath. Covered my eyes as the grenade went off, and found I was next to the heavy plasma rifle. I put the railgun away and picked the heavy weapon up, getting into cover while creating distance between myself and Diaz. If I already had that gun in my hands, I could at least have a little fun with it, if I had any shots into the raiders, without the risk of hitting a friendly.
Meowers
02 Sep 2023, 11:55pm
That blast was terrible, I remember questioning the sanity of those raiders... Even more than I did it before. I pushed my feet against the floor as strong as I could and leaned closer to the wall: thankfully, the piece of ship framework I've chosen for a cover took the most of it. Shrapnel and metal debris lashed my armour, a blue flash of disturbed shields blinded me for a moment, and a droning hum of energy field filled my helmet like it was sounding inside my head. Then... Smoke and flashbangs. Expectable. I squeezed the trigger, sending a long burst towards the breach, lowered my head and closed my eyes tightly shut. Still... It was like looking at a damn star up close.

So that's how the shitstorm started. I couldn't see anything through the thick smoke, yet the shrieks and screams of pain told me that some of my shots have found their targets successfully. It's frightening, yeah, I can't argue, to hold the line facing something like that, however, there's one point that may keep you sane. And firing. They were on the receiving end, rushing through the smoke, perfectly aware of the amount of firepower they were facing.

With my teeth clenched, I kept firing: directly at the doorway first, and then a bit to the left and right, expecting them to scatter to the sides. When the first figures began emerging from the smoke, I noticed... They weren't the same cheap goons we faced before: clad in black heavy armour, with upgraded weapons in their hands. Diaz's honour guard?

Anyway, they scream all the same when they're about to die.

One of them noticed me and froze for a moment, possibly trying to evaluate the threat and take aim, and that moment was fatal. You don't have to ask me twice. Keeping the trigger pressed, I pointed the rifle at the raider reflexively, first two rounds hit the shields and blinded the poor bastard, and another pair landed at the chest, sending the body flying back, straight at the group of pirates who came out of the smoke after. So, I kept firing. And, having a better visual now, troops behind me opened fire, annihilating the group in mere seconds.

They just... Kept coming and coming. I noticed a particularly large male figure amongst them and aimed... To see him grabbing one of his minions by the shoulder and dragging along with him. Damn, I wish I had a camera that could see through their black-tinted visors. That guy was literally a living shield: Diaz, and I've had no doubt it was him, kept him close to soak my shots, poor idiot tried to break free at first, clutching Diaz's arm, kicking, then I ripped through his shields and a next round fatally wounded him. Writhing convulsively, screaming in agony, he mustered all his remaining strength to point his rifle at me, yet my next shots quickly turned him in a deadweight. Diaz kept running and then discarded the body, and I had no chance to aim at him again: raiders kept appearing out of the smoke screen.

My rifle clicked quietly. Each magazine contained only twelve seconds of concentrated hatred. Not more. And, even if it takes less time to reload... Time certainly stalls when you have to do so. I looked back quickly and located one of the improvised barricades: with them coming in such numbers, I was forced to withdraw from my position. Preemptively, knowing that some of their stray shots will certainly find me and maybe tear my own shields down, I clenched my teeth and vaulted towards the barricade, discarding the emptied magazine on the go.

So, another moment when you think the time had stopped: when you fly towards the cover in zero gravity, unable to change your trajectory, unable to do anything, and you see that bluish liquid flame of your shields enveloping you, indicating incoming hits. Whichever gods you pray to, none of them will make you move faster, and that gauge on your in-helmet HUD is your only hope. Grabbing the metal sheet with my hand when I finally reached it, I pulled my body forcefully behind the cover, noticing one of the commandos already crouching behind it, with rifle in hands, keeping his head down. Maybe low on shields too or reloading, I thought.

"Come on, get up," I elbowed the soldier slightly once I reloaded, got up and sent another burst at the incoming raiders. "Got you covered."

He didn't react. I turned to him and met his eyes. Glazed, unblinking. There was a little sharp piece of metal sticking out of his neck. The guy was deader than dead, active compound in the suit sealed the breach, but he bled out. I remembered how he asked me for a lighter down in the elevator hall.

"Shit."
Venus Duval
03 Sep 2023, 1:33am
Diaz grabs Aventus once more and slams him into a piece of the wall. A large piece of twisted rebar tears through his left shoulder. He is further pinned to the wall by Diaz bending the rebar as if it was simply a pipe cleaner. He turns to Kira laughing.

'Hahaha look at you little flea! I'm going to squash you like a flea too! You stay put Aventus. I'm not done with you yet!'

Diaz leaps at Kira closing the distance in the blink of an eye grabbing the barrel of the heavy rifleand ripping it out of her hands. A full force punch straight to her helmet is delivered with enough force to send the titanium spikes on his knuckles into the metal alloy cracking the side of it and breaking the spikes in the process. The damage to the helmet is clearly only cosmetic and with some skill easily repairable. He fires his shotgun at a nearby commando tearing off a gnarly chunk of the mans ribcage. Diaz then tosses Kira to the side and leaps at a small cluster of raiders and commandos and tears one of the men's arms off before kicking his foot through the mans chest. The other commandos turn to fire at him doing little more than aiming before Diaz sweeps the legs out from one of the commandos sending him into a zero-G spin and turning to the female and ripping her throat out.

Diaz was fighting with a mix of martial arts and primal attacks. He had learned certain movements from fighting with the beasts he captured and killed for sport.
Kasumi Goto
03 Sep 2023, 2:00am
Diaz's attack did little more than cause light discomfort and pain which quickly faded away, as did the temporary disorientation of getting tossed to the side.

"You think that's going to do anything to stop me, bastard? I'm not done with you yet!", I shouted after Diaz, then looked around, thinking he was an idiot for striking out at a helmet made out of osmium in that manner.

Aventus was pinned to the wall by rebar, but still alive. I used the chaos to walk over to him undisturbed and, with a little more effort than required by Diaz, bent it straight again, or as straight as I could get it, while careful to not try pulling on it. I handed him some wound sealant if he needed it... and he probably did. One application might not be sufficient for that wound.

"I'm not gonna try to pull you out of that piece, or it out of you. Might be too risky. But if you get yourself out, use that sealant so you don't bleed out, and try to keep that big bastard busy. I'll be back to deal with him in a minute."

I'd spotted that Meowers needed some help with a larger bunch of raiders, over at the front of the barricade. And while Diaz was mauling our troops, I needed his dead as well, so I could send him to the oblivion that he deserved, without anyone interrupting. The heavy plasma rifle floated somewhere above the fighting, so I went and grabbed it again. Diaz had even been so nice to leave the barrel intact, meaning that I could still use it, and there was at least one ammo pack still attached as well, probably more. Its tripod had either been ripped off or gone missing, but hopefully I wouldn't need it... even if the weapon looked comically oversized in my hands.

I sent a few shots in the direction of Diaz from above as I had a better shot at him from up here, which also acted to push me toward the ceiling, but only one of the shots grazed him, while the others impacted the ground. Didn't really want to piss him off at me further for now, anyway. I used the momentum to attach myself to the ceiling, then push off again and quickly float back to the ground, away from the big brute. Once I landed, my first action was to effectively incinerate a trio of raiders with the superheated plasma rounds, before they even had a clue someone else was coming along.

"Thought you'd want some backup.", I remarked to Meowers, ducked behind cover, then fired at a raider who thought kinetic rounds were good against a shield. He quickly met his demise when his cover was shredded by the gun.

"You want a piece of me? Well, then, come and get it!"

I raised my left hand defiantly, then searched for cover myself - a few dents in my armor and helmet from bullets and Diaz were enough for me already, while there was still a whole lot of raiders left, and the element of surprise was now gone.
Meowers
03 Sep 2023, 4:37am
Diaz's pirates took the first line of barricades already, but our little pocket of resistance, of me and several soldiers around me, was doing fine given the circumstances. Aventus went silent on the comms, so I took command of a small group of five riflemen, giving my orders verbally, in and old-school way of yelling at people louder than the gunfire.

Raiders have lost the momentum they needed for that cannon fodder assault: even if earlier we had to grab our arses and retreat, the sheer amount of their bodies we left floating around the first line served as a prime warning for those who insisted on pushing. And scarce makeshift 'barricades' were reduced to a mess of scattered debris that couldn't provide any kind of adequate protection. At some point I noticed that damn raiders started using bodies as a cover. Shots were turning flesh and personal armour into a gross disgusting pulp, ripping off limbs and intestines, sending them flying down the corridor, it was damn obvious that the target was literally beyond dead already, but still there was always someone behind those mauled, mutilated bodies.

I've had no doubt they were high on drugs, to keep fighting like that.

Kasumi's sudden appearance nearby was most welcome, especially when she had that heavy autocannon in her hands and used it properly. Personally, I've always tried to keep the morale up, if I saw that something important is depending on me, and, at that moment, even 'being neutral' worked that way, a bit, I suppose. Normally, humans, given that Imperial commandos were human too, aren't totally desensitised as far as I know, and having that gorilla of a cyborg man raging behind us, and waves of his pumped up armoured minions assaulting us head-front, with blood gushing out of their wounds, chunks of flesh ripped out of their bodies, with their dead as a cover, trying to stand up and send more hate even having some of their limbs torn off, stopping only when they were no less than three times dead... Wasn't exactly a thing that can keep 'em fighting. So we needed every pleasant surprise we could've imagined.

I looked at her, nodded in gratitude, fired the last few rounds at the incoming raiders and crouched down to reload. That also gave me some time to look around at what was happening, especially at the friggin' bloody mess behind. And a mess it was, even being compared to the infernal depiction of insanity and agony in front. Diaz himself was playing a berserker in melee combat, surrounded by a group of commandos, some of the pirates were there as well, isolated from the rest of their forces, and everything looked as messy as it was possible. I told one of the riflemen to keep his eyes open and cover our rear, and... Perhaps this role was more gruesome than actually repelling the counterattack.

Aventus were nowhere to be seen, at least from my position.

"Aventus, do you copy? Tell them to stand down, I can't get a shot on him!"
Kasumi Goto
03 Sep 2023, 8:54am
“He’s currently stuck on a piece of metal shoved through his shoulder, thanks to big, hairy and brutal over there. If he can reply, he’s probably busy trying to pull off of it.”

I had to speak louder to make myself heard over the gunfire, breaking up the response to shoot back. Couldn’t even tell I was hitting something alive in the disgusting mess floating around.

“Me? Didn’t want to risk it, in case it made the injury worse.”

Something moved, and then screamed as I sent half a dozen plasma bolts in that general direction. Another six made the screaming and movement stop.

“Did give him another dose of wound sealant. If he tries to pull off, he’ll need two doses to stop that from bleeding.”

A few shots impacted the piece of makeshift barricade I used as cover. I returned the courtesy by spraying the area with plasma quite liberally, keeping their heads down a little. Movement somewhere off to the right, more or less at the same time as I began to lose my patience.

I thought it was one of ours at first, but quickly realized it was a raider using a body as cover to try getting closer. Something I’d consider myself in a pinch, if a bit gross, but entirely useless to hil, looking at the charred and mangled pieces of body throughout the area. I’d have to switch my helmet to filtered air soon.

For now, I was all out of patience, and ammo on the first mag. Pulled it out, left it to float in the air, and rammed the next one in. Heat levels were ok for now. Then I ripped the metal out of the ground and threw it at the raider holding the dead body.

“Haven’t you nutjob fucks had enough?!”

The metal impacted with enough velocity to pierce the body and the raider behind holding it, pulling him off the ground. A few more shots did the trick… and both bodies then lit up in a big explosion.

“Fucking suicide grunt.”, I muttered, and pulled out the one grenade I had left, throwing it to where I thought the remaining raiders were left, and just moved into the open, beginning to fire into a conglomerate of charred bodies, body pieces and metal, some of which was molten by plasma. A few haphazard shots came my way, doing nothing but piss me off further.

This mixture of elements that was pushing my aggression to new, unfound levels, as I marched across open ground, firing at anything that moved and looked alive, with one big gun to back it up. Luckily, it also temporarily desensitized me to the vile display of gore floating around.

If there was any human part left to the brains of these raiders, they’d have to be getting unsettled by the crazy, almost maniacal figure with the oversized gun, and whose face was entirely hidden behind a helmet, too. The absolute barrage of plasma might also have played a minor part in that as I shouted at them.

“Do you hear me? YOU’RE ALL GOING TO FUCKING DIE TODAY!”

A small part of my brain, the one not occupied with going berserk and spraying plasma everywhere like a maniac, was hoping my - definitely not planned - push, would be accompanied by Meowers and the commandos nearby. These raiders needed to die, and they needed to die now.

Last edit: 03 Sep 2023, 9:04am
Meowers
03 Sep 2023, 12:08pm
Kasumi sounded pretty angry. And the reasons were damn obvious. All that hostage extraction thing had turned into a bloody gory mess a long ago, and we, kind of, expected it to happen at some point, but... Not that bloody, with fanatical raiders high on drugs, heavy casualties from both sides, bodies mauled and shredded even after death and so much firepower over a small passageway that could've turned an entire carrier deck into mush.

And there was me. And a little group of armed people amidst that chaos, people who were on the verge of completely losing any sense of being human. Any sense of being. A thought crossed my mind a bit earlier... I might've been the only reason for them not losing it right now; I coordinated our fire, kept the bulk of raiders tightly suppressed and punished the most brazen of them, watched the shield levels, not only mine, but soldiers next to me too, kept our barricades standing by ordering the man at the back to bring us more ammo and steel chunks from the nearby makeshift covers that had fallen already, with nobody or only dead people behind them. We held the line and who knows what could've happened if not for this little island, merely six rifles strong.

Kasumi tipped the scales by that attack. We were running low on ammo, out of shield batteries, we couldn't fight at a full strength already, someone was reloading or waiting for their shields to recharge at least to a half. She had us covering her, and we've finally got a moment to catch our breath. And I perfectly know how short and transient those surprise effects are.

Pushing my second-to-last magazine into the rifle, I took a brief look around, trying to meet every soldier's eyes.

"This might be the chance. Go after me," I said, folding the bipod and getting ready to vault over the barricade.

"CHARGE!"

Dashing forward, I caught up with Kasumi and opened fire. That red dot thingy on the in-helmet HUD, my latest humble improvement, was especially designed for shooting from the hip and marching fire. And it did its job perfectly, showing me what my rifle was aiming at. First line of barricades, that wasn't ours anymore, was shredded in an instant, exposing the dead and still living, but not for long, raiders. They started running. Those who tried to counterattack us met their quick and grisly end, perforated, ripped apart by the gunfire. Flesh of those who tried to hide turned into a foul, disgusting blend of burnt tissues and melted metal. Those who tried to run, met their most disgraceful end, being shot in the back like the cowards they were.

"Bring it on, shits! Give me all you got!"

Smoke screen was dissipating slowly, exposing vague human figures ahead of us... And we knew that, whoever was ahead of us, should've been condemned to a most brutal death. Blue sparks and silhouettes of personal shields did a great job unmasking them, allowing us to tell dead from to-be-dead, and ours... Personally, I didn't want to have any kind of camouflage. I wanted my muzzle flash to blind them before my rounds hit them, thundering sound of shots to deafen and frighten them, and all that picture to be the last thing they see in their miserable lives.

At this point, they looked so sorry that fighting felt more like executing. No surrender now.
Kasumi Goto
03 Sep 2023, 12:54pm
“Run all you want, you cowards! It won’t save you!”

A few shots grazed my shield yet again, causing little more than annoy me even further, as I turned and sent a barrage of hellfire into the face of a human who realized their imminent doom. What remained could barely be identified as a body.

“Who’s left? Do any of you fuckers still want to fight?!”

A poorly-aimed plasma round that didn’t even come close to hitting my body answered that question. I dropped a shield dome projector as my suit shield was beginning to get low, and continued to lay down fire, effectively safe from return shots while the dome held. A grenade landed at my feet, but reflexes resulted in it getting kicked away, and discarding some of the debris in the way of our shots as it exploded.

To an onlooker, what I was doing had to look like a display of complete insanity, standing in the open as I kept the trigger down and just covered everything in plasma, barrel glowing from heat buildup. The only thing absent was me screaming and giggling in maniacal manner, as the overpowered weapon made minced meat of anything that dared to cross its stream of pure destruction.

The amount of return fire suddenly ceased dramatically, when I was still at the height of my, plasma-induced, battle rush.

“What, you fucks are done for already? Is this really what Diaz used as his personal guard? Fucking morons!”

There were figures still crawling, barely one or two that I could see standing. I’d moved up to the barricade, watching a contact trying to remain stationary in the top left display, just behind it.

Kicking down their makeshift cover caused a very unsettled raider to jump up and backwards, drawing some kind of trigger, as if they held an explosive charge on their body. Commando with a suicide charge, presumably, but his nerves failed him at the last moment.

The reward, a bunch of superheated rounds to the chest. The body lurched backward, but remained upright enough for me to kick it away, a dead-man’s switch triggering the suicide charge when it was already far enough away to cause no damage.

I began to mop up the stragglers, focusing on those that remained standing, but something flashed up red, and the weapon stopped firing. Still had ammo, but heat levels were reaching a critical point.

“Need to let it cool down. Well, at least most of them are dead. You can mop up the rest.”

My gaze was particularly directed at Meowers. I kept the heavy weapon as far as I could from myself when I opened a vent on its side where scalding hot gas spilled out, further warping the air with heat, on top of that emanating from the barrel glowing in an angry red, adding a trippy effect to the scene.

Still kept an eye out for anyone that moved, in case any more suicidal rushers were around. Couldn’t expect all of them to lose their nerves like the last one.
Venus Duval
03 Sep 2023, 5:10pm
James walks over and places his left hand on Kira's shoulder.

'You uh... missed a few'

He chuckles and removes his heavy weapon pack and places the minigun style weapon in a safe space.

'Out of ammo but not out of ideas yet.'

The heavy armored gunner grabs a large section of floating debris and places it in front of him as he backs against the wall. He aims himself in Diaz's direction, who now has his back turned to him, and kicks as hard as he can off the wall activating his booster jets. He impacts Diaz with enough force to know him off his feet and slam him into the opposite bulkhead.

Diaz pushes off the wall and seemingly struggles a bit to move his left arm. He grabs the chunk of debris and hurls it at a group of people not realizing they were his own raiders splitting them in half. He turns to face James and grabs his helmet by the viewing visor shattering the lense. He rips off his helmets tearing the connection points apart and hits James repeatedly over the head. A gash opens up after about the third hit. James pulls out a serrated combat knife and pressed a button. An electrical crackling sound erupts from the blade and he jams it up into Diaz's left armpit. Diaz reels back convulsing slightly from the electrical pulses causing his disruption in his cybernetics briefly. He rips the blade out of him tearing his artificial flesh and ripping the socket to shreds. He lets out a loud grunt and tackles James shoving the blade straight into his chest. The blade manages to find a gap in the armor plating and tears into the soft tissue below it sending electrical pulses into James' body dangerously close to his heart.

Aventus manages to pull himself free of the rebar with a lot of effort required, mostly from him having to push through the excruciating levels of pain coursing through is body. He applies the wound seal and looks up to see Diaz and James drifting through the air and James not wearing a helmet anymore. He closes his eyes and prepares himself for his next action which would likely end up not going well for him.

Aventus crouches down and picks up a long sharp sliver of alloy and lunges at Diaz. The distance was short but the distance felt endless. Aventus held the sharp shard out in front of him like a spear. The impact is jarring. A scraping metallic sound can be heard as the metal shard tears into and through the cybernetics throughout Diaz's body.

'Harkon! I thought I told you to stay put! You should have listened you stupid prick!'

'Fuck you Diaz. You are a fucking menace to society and your bounty could pay 10 imperial contracts for 15 years. You should have left Silvia alo....... argh!'

Diaz removes the blade from James' chest and drives it into Aventus' stomach then kicks him towards Meowers and Kira. James pulls out the Grenade from his belt that he had taken from Kira and activates it.

'Fuck you Diaz! See you in hell!'

Diaz realizes at the last minute what was about to happen and leaps away from James just as the explosion goes off. Melli rushes to Aventus and hops onto his chest. She licks his helmet as he scratches her armor covered body.

'You are one crazy fox.'

Aventus applies the last bit of wound seal to his stomach and grabs a rifle nearby firing it at Diaz.
Kasumi Goto
03 Sep 2023, 8:45pm
I was about to reply to the gunner - whose name I had either not heard or already forgotten again - when he marched off to, presumably, deal with Diaz, so I turned my attention back to the few, not-so-alive raiders left. Anyone that hadn’t bled out yet was either about to do so, or tried to make a hasty departure after injecting themselves with more painkiller than was healthy.

I was having none of that. I nodded to Meowers, and opened fire, not willing to leave any stragglers behind. Or just end their suffering. A few seconds of fire ended their pitiful lives, then I checked the ammo count of the heavy plasma weapon. Not much left, but enough to use against Diaz at some point.

Turning back to where he was being fought, I saw the gunner stab him, and effectively paralyze him for longer than a human should normally have been. That gave me an idea.

I leaned the plasma weapon against a cover, and used my wrist computer to ping for my shock mines, checking if they either had survived the blast, or weren’t set off. Much to my disbelief, I received a ping back from one, with a rough location of ‘just ahead’. Didn’t take long to find - before I got to it, though, I heard a moan. Came from a nearly dead raider - I ended their suffering with a pistol shot, which they looked almost glad for.

The mine was damaged, expectedly, some shrapnel sticking out of the device, but it still responded to a shutdown command, and had retained its charge. So the battery wasn’t damaged, but proximity detection was out.

That worked out in my favor, as I could just set it off when I needed, but Diaz had likely foreseen that weakness, and would need to be off the ground for that idea to work. I returned to Meowers, holding the mine, presenting it.

“I’ve got an idea how to handle the big guy, but someone’s gonna need to knock him off the ground when I set it off, or the electricity’s just gonna pass into the ship’s hull. Pretty sure it’ll knock his big fancy robotics out for a good while though - these mines can kill someone if they’re the only one struck.”

I turned to the remaining commandos near me, tucking the mine away.

“You, hold this point. We don’t need any of those pirate idiots to come up behind us while we handle the big guy. And leave the big gun for me. I’ll need it when we’re through with him.”

My attention went back to Meowers.

“Ready to go fight the bear?”
Meowers
04 Sep 2023, 12:03am
The charge ought've been decisive. Otherwise... I gave my ammo counter a brief look. Almost halfway through the last magazine. Made me sigh quietly. Turning to the five commandos behind me, looking in their faces, I realised... There wasn't much fighting left in them. And, after what they've done, after what they've achieved, I should, without any other option and without hesitation, give them an order to stand down. To stop throwing their lives into the fire. Bruised, battered, with damaged armour pieces hanging from their suits, like tattered rags, blood-stained, barely standing straight, yet still looking into my eyes and waiting for my word. Clutching their weapons in ever slightly trembling hands. That look... Once you've seen it, you could never forget it. Looking at you yet gazing through you, exhausted, desperate, detached from the reality as you may know it, pushed to the point where the line between life and death blurs into a gradient. Yet still waiting for the order, ready to carry it out, no matter the costs.

Crap. I might've been looking none less dramatic at the moment. Though, when I saw that there were still five of them standing behind me, I smiled slightly, almost imperceptibly. Replying equally to Kasumi, nodding in return, I raised my hand slowly and addressed to soldiers.

"At ease. Remain here and wait for orders. Feel free to grab their weapons if you're low on ammo. And... Here", I pulled the half-empty pack of cigarettes out of the pocket and sent it floating towards one of the troopers. "Just make sure to leave a couple left for me."

I took the pistol out of the holster and followed Kasumi. To reap those few remaining 'elite' raiders. They were... Completely, utterly broken. Writhing in agony, groaning in pain, trying to crawl away in desperate attempts to escape the inevitable fate. The fate that have become inevitable once they pledged themselves to Diaz. Torn apart, scorched, melted, their fancy black suits weren't looking so intimidating as they used to think, exposing the foul, cowardly nature of people hidden under that armour.

One of them extended his hand, trying to reach me. Either trying to stop me, or to reach me, or... Whatever. That hand remained floating in zero gravity once I shot his head off clear.

"Fighting the bear, you say?" I addressed to Kasumi, placing the pistol back into the holster. "Sure. On your mark. Give me the signal and I'll charge. There are still some of his goons left, but I can deal with them on the go."
Kasumi Goto
04 Sep 2023, 1:09am
"It's as much of a plan as I can come up with."

I looked over to where Diaz and the remaining commandos were fighting. Smoke from an explosion was currently obscuring view somewhat, making it hard to tell who was where, though I could make out the bodies of freshly killed raiders floating around, killed by someone who threw a piece of metal at them hard enough to pierce their bodies entirely. Presumably, Diaz, an idea which amused me quite a bit. Aventus had landed near us after getting kicked away by the bastard, but given his current state, while at least not dead, probably wasn't much use in a close quarters fight. He'd likely need a good bit of medical attention afterward, too.

"Let's go in there slowly. Kill any of those pirates that might still have a chance of shooting back. Or, at least, I'll go in slow. Don't want that big bastard jumping on me again."

I pointed at the - largely superficial - damage to my helmet, then began to move forward, holding my pistol in both hands. The railgun would likely not prove too useful in close quarters like this, so I stopped again, and removed it from my back. Mag lock secured it to a nearby wall after I gently pushed it toward one. No fire seemed to come our way for now, and the smoke of the explosion began to clear, unveiling the gunner who'd run off to take on Diaz.

"Diaz! Where are you, bastard? Come and fight me like the man you are! Or are you a coward, hiding in the shadows like your friend in the hangar?"

A heavy thud originating from somewhere within the room told me I'd have my answer soon. I glimpsed movement in the corner of my vision, and instinctively dodged sideways, avoiding Diaz slamming into me with all his mass. Had kept some distance to Meowers for the case of this event, so he didn't hit her.

Hopping backward slightly to get distance between him and me, I studied some already fairly extensive damage to some sections of cybernetics and artificial flesh, while pulling out my serrated knife, held in my left hand, pistol in the right. Remaining ready to react to whatever his next move was.

"And here you are. Standing on the crumbling remains of your burning empire, because you just couldn't leave good enough alone. I hope you're proud of yourself, Marcus Diaz. The one thing you did right was to fuck up, and that fuckup was to piss me off. This ends here."

My voice was cold, uncaring, holding only resentment and mockery for him. I doubted he'd get distracted so easily, but if I could keep his primary focus on me through hurting his pride and ego, that would eventually prove to be his demise.

Last edit: 04 Sep 2023, 2:20am
Meowers
04 Sep 2023, 6:29am
"Waiting for your signal," I added quietly, nodding to Kasumi before she went to face our today's supervillain. "Yell something and I'll charge."

I took cover behind one of the barricades, one that was at least half-intact, and took aim at the raiders in the distance. Slowly dissipating smoke still provided some disguise, yet not obstructing the view completely; I still had some ammo left and wanted to put it to good use.

Diaz's personal guard have lost this battle: their main forces laid literally at my feet right now, and a little remaining pocket of resistance, those who managed to get through, fought their last fight, in about fifty metres away, surrounded by Aventus' soldiers. The battle took its toll on them too, and both sides were exchanging shots, sticking to their positions.

With both sides so exhausted, even a little outside help could work wonders. I took aim at one of the raiders, already shieldless, whose head was barely visible, and waited for him to move; when he tried to stand up and make a few shots... I was quickier. Tapping the trigger rapidly, I sent three singles at him, one landed at his back, second grazed the barricade and splashed, showering the bastard with a wave of heated plasma, and the third was certainly lethal: with a metal thud, barely audible at that distance, the projectile pierced the helmet on the back of his head, turning the foul mind and, I've no doubt, none less ugly face inside that helmet into a reddish paste.

"Bloody morons," I whispered, "Why the hells don't you just shoot yourselves."

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