Tuesday, December 3, 2069 - 1:00 AM Eastern
Just last night, Tracy's life was normal, asides from the new dog - now she's sneaking through an abandoned subway system with a hundred thousand newdollar reward on her head, toward what's marked on her map as a maintenance station.
Their car is parked a little bit back down the tunnel; with luck if there are any soldiers present and they're called out, they'll miss seeing it. If not... Well, as her mother keeps telling her, she needs to be unpredictable. Up ahead, Tracy can see the enormous rig that's used to lift subway cars or other heavy loads up from the tracks and rotate them to slide into the garage for maintenance. Pedestrian stairs and a vehicle ramp also lead up from the base of the tunnel to the elevated subway station floor.
To her side is Cadena, wearing his kevlar harness, and just behind her is Akiko, wearing a distinctly un-chic G-Motors Self Defense bulletproof vest over her T-shirt and jeans, and a backpack containing some "useful" things she picked up from the G-Mart. They are very definitely not well enough armed if Mav's Mavericks happened to leave a large number of armed mercenaries behind... But with luck, Jason's distraction at his rendezvous will draw off most of the soldiers.
The sounds of heavy servomotors comes from up ahead. Something heavy is clomping about. That can't be good.
Akiko frowns. "Do you hear machinery?" she whispers.
Licking her lips Tracy checks her power meter to see just how much she was able to recharge the suit while in the car (for some reason, she keeps worrying over it). Then she closes the hood and whispers to the others, "I'm going to see what's making the noise." A moment later, she's effectively invisible as she turns on the stealth mode of the suit.
"Mind the security robot," Cadena subvocalizes over the communicator. "Judging from the sound, it is armed with an HMG, gatling type, and has is keeping the barrels in active spin to avoid having to spin-up before it can react. Or that's what it sounds like, at least."
The suit plays a series of descending chords into Tracy's ears to reinforce that it's actually doing something. Akiko and Cadena do not hear anything, but they do see her grey jumpsuit ripple and then become an almost perfect copy of the wall behind her.
Tracy sneaks around the corner and halfway up the stairs until she can peek over the platform to see the robot and various closed doors it appears to be guarding. "Okay.. yeah, it's a big robot," she confirms in a whisper, and checks for other activity, including light leaking out from the door frames.
The Einhorn Crowd Protection Mecha swivels its gaze around suspiciously. Or perhaps Tracy's just anthropomorphizing it. It's a large armored capsule on two giant legs, one gun-arm mounted on its right side and a normal utility arm on its left side. The hull has been painted khaki, but green splotches of paint obscure the logo and numbers that would identify the military force from which it came.
"According to the suit readout, it's an Einhorn Crowd Protection Mecha," Tracy relays, along with salient features like which side the gun is on. "Do either of you know how to turn it off?"
"No," Cadena subvocalizes. "That's a fairly common model, but unless it's an especially obsolete version still in service, or a hack job, it should have its own onboard central process with Red Level 6 security even if you could somehow manage to directly plug in to access it. It's likely to take orders from an external computer, likely located somewhere within its base, though given the possibility of repeaters, there's no way of knowing whether that would be on-location, or elsewhere."
Akiko frowns. "Level 6 security is a little tough... Especially if it's Red. Is there maybe an alternate route we can take? Or can we sneak around it?"
"It is conceivable," Cadena adds, "that its standing orders could include recognition of designated personnel authorized to alter its instructions, but without knowing who, and data about their appearance, voice print, code words, and so forth, I don't imagine we could easily exploit that with the technology available. As for alternate routes..."
The robot stomps toward the train loading/unloading system, in front of the warehouse, and begins scanning there.
"It's closer than I thought - Akiko!" Cadena subvocalizes. "Get to cover QUICKLY!" He springs into action, pushing Akiko back and to the wall, as he hears the heavy clomping of the security robot coming about.
The robot has no visible expression, but it pauses on the rightmost part of its scan, fixing its gaze upon the tunnel. Was that a noise?
Since her suit recognized it, Tracy figures it may know more about the robot's senses as well. She goes through the virtual controls to see if the robot has a good chance of spotting her or not. "It moves fast, be care-" she starts to say, pausing when the mechanical monster seems to notice something.
The Kevlar-vested dog crouches low amidst the scant debris, huddled close to Akiko, breathing controlled and hushed, muscles tense and ready to spring to cover the human, should the shooting begin....
Akiko whispers over the intercom, "Thanks, Cadena! That was close."
Cadena is unresponsive, keeping as still as he can manage, relying on the indirect senses of his ears and keeping his face hidden, rather than putting a pair of bare eyes at risk that might be picked out by a security robot's facial pattern recognition system.
The robot pauses, then starts stomping back the way it came, but it seems to be moving more quickly or directedly than a simple patrol would indicate. Could it be making for the vehicle ramp?
"I think it's heading down to the tracks," Tracy hisses. "Run for cover!"
Cadena subvocalizes, "We're exposed here--" at about the same time, but drops that thought at Tracy's command. He scans the area for any clues of what sort of threat he might be dealing with, and spies only a few random bullet holes and burn marks on a wall, but no signs of dead subway wildlife or other trespassers that would hint at just how trigger-happy the robot might be. Not that it would alter his plan. He noses Akiko. "Move back!" he subvocalizes, as he tries to herd her back around the corner.
Akiko squeaks! She breaks into a run for the turn-off. Maybe if they can make it around the corner, they'll be able to hide.
The 'borrowed' getaway car makes the utility access tunnel a pretty tight fit, but Akiko squeezes in against the wall. She holds her breath, trying not to let her gasping give her away.
Cadena winces at the "squeak," and dashes after Akiko, ducking around the corner and pulling his tail after him. "Not much elsewhere we can go if robot's patrol extends this far," Cadena subvocalizes. "Not even sure how we got this close without it noticing the vehicle. Perhaps its patrol extends further in the other direction, and we lucked out to come down here while it was returning to center?"
Noticing something now that the robot is looking 'down' towards the ramp, Tracy bites her lip and starts to move up onto the platform, so that she can be close to the robot's head if it goes down into the tunnel. She's seen that parts of the sentry are still exposed: it wasn't completely assembled before being put on duty!
The robot continues to move down the ramp, its head turned and fixed on the spot where it heard the noise.
"Proposed plan for consideration," Cadena subvocalizes. "If security robot comes to hiding position, I leap, act as distraction, while Akiko rejoins with Tracy, continues mission. I do not anticipate ability to disable robot, but may be able to keep it occupied for long enough for humans to get to safety. Not sure how other defenders will react to discovery of my presence, but might not take it as serious threat if no other humans detected?"
Akiko tries to slow her breathing. Cadena and Tracy hear her subvocalizing without meaning to, "Think happy thoughts. Think calm thoughts. Sunlight. Beach. Quiet. Petting Inari."
Cadena's eyebrow furrows at that, as he boggles at the imagery conjured, but he says and subvocalizes nothing, instead intently listening in on the audio pick-up from Tracy and wondering just WHAT is going on there....
Drawing her vibroblade from its pocket, Tracy thumbs on the power switch as she takes a running leap towards the robot - mentally picturing it to be a pommel horse. She arches over, grabs the left shoulder with her left hand, and brings the rest of her weight down on the blade as she drives it into the exposed back of the robot's head.
Cadena subvocalizes, "Ah ... Master? Er, Tracy? I hear lots of noises. Are you being attacked? Are you all right?"
"Busy stabbing," is Tracy's quick reply.
The robot shorts! The exposed wires and pipes let loose a shower of blue sparks. "Wa--" Another quick strike cuts the vocal wire before it can finish alerting the base.
The Einhorn Crowd Protection Mecha is now silently stomping around, flailing at the air trying to identify and eliminate its attacker.
"Okay.. now I've done it," Tracy laments, holding on with her legs and one gecko-glove.
Akiko 'yells' into her comm. "Tracy! Are you okay?"
"I must save my master!" Cadena bolts from his hiding place, intent upon saving Tracy from ... being stabbed, electrocuted, shot, or whatever other horrible things are going on right now.
Akiko looks alarmed as Cadena takes off. "Tracy! Cadena's going in!"
"I don't know if this thing is disabled enough to not shoot!" Tracy replies, as she tries to find a way to disconnect or jam the robot's ammunition feed.
"Do not worry, Tracy!" Cadena pants, "I will draw its fire away from you!"
"What? It can't shoot me, I'm on its back!" Tracy helpfully yelps.
"I am not certain that is sufficient impediment," Cadena pants back.
The robot continues to flounder around! It emits pathetic sparks, twisting and turning in place.
Cadena continues dashing madly along the tunnel walkway, between the wall and the subway car tubes, rushing past the personnel stairs. He keeps beneath the platform edge for what cover it might provide as he dashes for the main vehicle ramp - and the jolting, sparking security robot thrashing about upon it.
Letting go of the vibroblade, Tracy reaches into another pocket to draw out the taser and switch it to 'contact' mode. "Gonna try to burn out.. something," she announces.
Cadena rushes up to the robot, diving between legs, spinning about, but not barking, trying to make himself a confusing target for the robot to try to track, all while he looks for some sign of where his master might be hiding.
The robot threshes about, paying no attention to the dog running around its legs. Servos clack and whine.
Akiko thinks, unaware that her subvocalizing is making her words come out over the comm. "Think calm thoughts. Think Inari thoughts. Think... Inari! Inari wouldn't hide." She rolls out from the cover of the tunnel and heads determinedly for the fray.
Cadena, narrowly avoiding being stomped underfoot, nonetheless continues running circles and loops around the robot and in between its legs, trying to put it off-balance enough to step off the ramp, or some other mishap....
The robot narrowly manages to keep its balance despite the proximity of a dog. Sparks and crackles emit from the wire that should have connected the speaker - presumably if it could talk, it would be warning Cadena that he was in danger of being stepped on.
On the robot's back, Tracy still struggles to find a good spot to use the taser, without being thrown off or wasting a charge. "Stand still, stupid robot.." she mutters.
"Tracy!" Cadena subvocalizes, in between moments of being underfoot. "Are you all right? Don't give away your position if you are hiding - I don't see any blood."
"I'm riding the robot, haven't been injured," Tracy replies.
Akiko runs pell mell up the passenger stairs, her Naginata Laser drawn! She pants as she reaches the top of the elevated platform, on level with the robot's head - and catches sight of Tracy flailing wildly with her taser! "Hang on, Tracy!" she subvocalizes.
Cadena continues to dive and dart about, perplexed as the robot seems to anticipate and deftly avoid him while maneuvering. "I do believe this model could be taught to dance, with the proper programming."
With a yell, Tracy jams the taser into the exposed electronics and pulls the trigger, hoping that if its not in contact, proximity to the spark should cause some inductive damage at least..
ZORCH! The taser unloads deadly electricity into the robot's circuitry. With a sigh, the Einhorn Crowd Protection Mecha shuts down. Fweeeoooooo...
"About time," Tracy grumbles, as she secures her taser and retrieves her G-Tool blade. "Is everyone okay?"
Cadena scrambles from underneath the robot. "To my surprise I am unharmed. I have new faith in the Einhorn corporate motto - their pledge to 'tread lightly' upon the Earth." He ducks his paw and gives a quick bow to the robot. "I apologize for the necessity of our interruption of your mission, and hope that you will be repaired and returned to service again some day."
Akiko's hand looks shaky as she aims the Naginata Shadow toward the robot, then lowers it gradually. "I'm okay," she whispers. "You're lucky that thing didn't stomp you flat! Either of you!"
"At least it didn't shoot, and nobody has run out to see why it stopped talking," Tracy notes, climbing down from the hulk and turning her attention on the doors. The one closest to Akiko, furthest from the big doors looks like the best bet to her.
Cadena subvocalizes, "We should seek cover immediately. We have no way of knowing whether or not the robot had a 'dead man' connection to set off an alert if it lost contact with the system, or if it might have transmitted a wireless warning already."
There's no sign of activity from the base. As yet. The large doors have light shining through the cracks beneath and between them, and the side door for the lobby is darkened.
Cadena growls, then says, "There's a camera, just over there in the corner, overlooking the entrance. If anyone has been watching, we're already spotted. Maybe no one is watching the live feed - or maybe they're understaffed and whoever's inside is taking up a defensive position. I have no way to know, but either way we might not have much time."
Akiko closes up with the others, eying the silently panning camera. "The green light's on, that's good, right? It'd turn red if it had spotted us, like in the games?"
"Why would it let you know if you were spotted?" Tracy replies, and goes to see if the door is actually locked or not.
Cadena furrows a brow. "A fake security camera, perhaps, for show? But why would anyone invest in that if they could get a security robot?"
The white dog goes up to the door, pressing an ear to it.
The dog paces along, checking at each door, then trots back to Tracy. "More than one person inside the large warehouse, talking. They sound calm - I can only hope that means they're not alarmed yet. I don't hear anything in the lobby. Not sure about the middle area; doors might be too thick for me to make anything out."
Cadena sighs. "If your friend Jason were here, I'm sure he would have befriended the security robot by now, and it could simply go in and take care of everything for us."
Akiko lifts an eyebrow. "I'm not in Jason's class," she murmurs. "But I know a few tricks. I could try to do something with its programming."
"Okay, best to go in through this small door then," Tracy notes. She gets out her lock-picking kit and goes to work. "I don't think the robot is gonna be of much use anytime soon though.."
The cheap lock falls prey to Tracy's skills in no time at all. It clicks open onto a dusty old lobby that smells of machine oil and cheap beer.
"Here we go," Tracy whispers and slips into the darkened room.
Cadena frowns. "I hate the thought of leaving anyone exposed, but if this is what we found outside, I'd guess odds are high that anyone inside is heavily armed as well. Is there any way you could quickly assess the damage and see whether it's a lost cause?"
Akiko points up to the camera. "Tracy, can you do something about that? If you want me to look at the robot that is, and see if I can hack into it."
The dog involuntarily jerks as the door seems to open of its own accord. "Master? Tracy? Are you still here?" His ears perk and swivel, listening for breathing, as he absently sniffs the air.
"Yes, Caddy, I'm inside the.. it's a lobby. Waiting for my eyes to adjust better," Tracy notes.
"Akiko, I regret that it seems my master is not in a position to work on the camera," Cadena reports, and then he drops to a low crouch and sneaks his way into the lobby. "Although," he continues, subvocalizing, "taking out the camera would be useful in its own right, should anyone view the feed and wonder what is up with the robot."
Akiko frowns. "Okay, I don't have too much experience with security systems, but let me see..." She kneels beneath the camera and takes off her backpack, which turns out to contain a medikit and a set of multi-purpose tools.
Moving carefully, Tracy first tries to see if there are security monitors behind the main desk.
Akiko works on the camera, her tonguetip sticking out from between her lips. It's not quite cooperating with her, it appears. She attaches electrodes to the circuits and then digs out her PDA and starts tapping away on it.
Cadena offers, "I don't know if it will help, but I am equipped with a K-9 Storm Collar."
Sure enough... There are several security monitors. One shows the defunct robot, another shows the employee breakroom (vacant and dark), and a third shows the train workshop, which is full of complicated heavy-looking machines... And five men gathered in front of a large sleeping ice wyvern! Four of them are - wonder of wonders - playing cards, while the fifth is covering them with what looks like a heavy machine gun. And is that Randall in the cards-playing group? He's unarmed, while the other thugs have pistols of some kind.
"Okay, you can ignore the camera and come in here," Tracy tells the others. "Randall, Mara and five guys are in the big room. One has a machine gun, Randall is.. playing cards.. and Mara looks knocked out."
Akiko pauses. "Now you tell me? I was just about to totally ace this cheap excuse for a security system," she says, her PDA displaying the rotating walls of the camera's logic.
"Well.. sorry?" Tracy replies. "Going to check out the middle room and see if there's any sneaky way into the big one. Or maybe find some gas grenades or something else.. these guys did steal a load of stuff from Eagle after all."
Cadena gives a canine shrug, then slinks in, looking around (and failing) to find Tracy, though he checks out the security monitors. "We don't know if anyone else might be able to monitor these remotely, even if no one appears to be reacting to our presence now." He looks at the HMG-carrying thug and the others, then to the display of the disabled robot. "Seriously, if there's any realistic way that robot could be on our side, we could use the help. I do not have the technical expertise to gauge the likelihood of that, however."
Akiko says over the com, "It could be fixed, these things are usually built tougher than a truck, I just need time! Do you want me to take a crack at it?"
The middle room used to contain parts and supplies like coolant and oil for the trains. Now it contains crates upon crates of stolen weapons and ammunition. There may very well be gas grenades somewhere around here - if Tracy can find them!
"Yeah, see if you can fix the speaker," Tracy suggests. "If you can make it say stuff, we can use that as a distraction to get them out of the warehouse, maybe. Or just as a loudspeaker. 'This is Irongrip, we're here for our goods,' or something."
Assured that the thugs aren't watching the camera, Akiko goes to start working on the damaged robot.
Cadena watches the monitors. "Should I remain here and watch for signs of movement, or other developments on the monitors, or should I follow you? Please let me know how I may best be of service, master."
Tracy goes to check the door to the middle room. "Stay here for now, until I'm sure it's safe. I need to see what's available here and what other ways I might be able to sneak into the big room there are," she tells Cadena.
Randall appears to be losing at cards, judging from the stack of chips in front of him that is slowly diminishing while the others grow. Though perhaps it's just a ruse.
"Acknowledged," Cadena replies. "Hmm. I wonder what the chips might represent? Or if something happens when he runs out?" He then turns his attention to the sleeping ... wyvern? He cocks his head to one side, examining the creature, trying to make sense of its strange form.
Mara continues to slumber. She's a weird mix of an ice wyvern of some kind with police spinner-styled armor, but the missile that struck her has ravaged her hind flank, exposing servomotors and fuel lines, covered with some kind of plastic goo to staunch the flow of fluids. Wait-- as Cadena studies the monitor, he notices one of her pale yellow eyes slit just slightly open, watching the gangsters.
"Master, do you have any equipment for picking up video feeds from me?" Cadena subvocalizes, focusing upon the room monitor. "I think the large cyborg might be operational."
Akiko reports in on the com, "I think I've got a grip on it. Tracy didn't actually do too much damage to the robot, just damaged the CPU. I can get it operational but it'll be under manual control. Or I can try to hack the feed and make it send a fake alert..."
Cadena's ears perk at "got a grip on it," but droop at "damaged the CPU."
Duffy wurfs, "Anyway, you can go where you like and you can even crack open crates, but do a Computers roll (d6) if you want to try to locate some specific kind of equipment to use!"
"Mara's awake? Okay, that's good. It means we just have to get the guy with the gun to point it in a different direction," Tracy notes, and then determines that the only real security is the robot and the cameras. She starts poking around the warehouse, looking for a manifest.
The camera watching the front shows Akiko almost out of sight, using the robot's body as cover, as she putters away. "Hello? What do you want me to do with ol' Einie?"
"You said the CPU was damaged," Cadena notes. "Is it a multi-processor unit? That is, does it have a dedicated processor devoted toward handling locomotion separate from its motivational circuitry? Or ... is it all together and all damaged? I'm just concerned that if it's entirely manual, without any computational assistance, keeping such a machine upright, let alone maneuvering it, would be a considerable challenge."
"Do you have complete manual control?" Tracy asks. "I mean.. can you make it fire the gun?" She first starts looking for body armor among the crates, since Randall will probably need some.
Akiko replies. "There are a few sub-brains. I'll be able to move it or aim and shoot, not both at the same time. That'd be too much for my li'l PDA to handle! Don't expect great accuracy either."
"Can you direct it at range, or do you require a physical connection?" Cadena inquires, worried. "The robot might be armored, but it will also likely be a bullet-magnet in the case of hostilities - a hazard if you happen to be right next to it - or even riding it."
Tracy's manifest takes her to a suit locker which she unlocks with no trouble. A standard-issue Eagle Security armored jumpsuit hangs there, along with a Spazztic! Hammergun hanging on some pins in the back. It's unloaded but several magazines are stacked at the bottom of the locker. Miss September smiles at Tracy from the inside of the locker.
"Let me just install this RC gizmo then," Akiko's voice replies. She rummages around in her backpack.
Cadena turns his attention to the monitor showing the stocks being rifled through by ghostly forces. "Who does all this belong to? Hmm. Quite the pity it won't do me any good." He then looks back to the monitor showing the workshop, anxious in case of any sudden developments.
Grinning inside her mask, Tracy grabs the suit, gun and ammunition and places it near the door to the workshop. "We won't need to aim," she tells the others. "My plan is to have the robot fire off a few rounds to get the goons' attention, thinking they're under attack. When they react, I can move in and get Randall under cover while Mara zaps everyone. How does that sound?"
Click. Snap. A fat blue spark flies. Akiko ouches, sucks on her finger, then adjusts the gizmo. "Okay, remote control installed. Don't ask me to get it to dance though!"
"Or, we can have it attack the big doors and declare it's a raid, come out with your hands up.." Tracy suggests next.
"That could likely develop into a hostage standoff," Cadena replies, "and we are not here in sufficient force to maintain a siege."
"A more ideal scenario would be one in which they perceive an exterior threat," Cadena suggests, "but not from someone who would be concerned about the welfare of their captives."
Tracy checks the manifest, looking for other distractions - like flash-bang, smoke or gas grenades. "So, have it seem like the robot is firing on someone?"
"I confess that I have not yet formulated a better plan," Cadena subvocalizes.
Akiko wipes motor oil off her forehead and makes tracks for the lobby where she joins Cadena at the security monitors. "Here, let me just..." She pops the robot's head camera feed through. It now shows a grainy, static-shot view of the far wall of the subway tunnel.
Bruno turns around. "Anyone hear ol' Stompy? It hasn't moved in a while," he says, his voice coming through the monitors over the quiet chatter of the thugs' games.
Tracy digs out the gas grenades, but then has to find the masks! "Can you make him stomp around some, Akiko? And look for a safe spot to control him from."
Akiko shivers as she adjusts the control. "It's gotten cold in here suddenly," she complains. Servomotors come to life and the robot stands.
The robot begins walking to the garage. Bruno relaxes. "Ah, there it is."
"Yeah, maybe it was having a moment," Randall agrees.
"My presence here is redundant," Cadena notes. "Unless you object, I shall assist in searching for gear." He hops down and trots - as quietly as he can manage - over to the "ghostly" activity in the store room.
Akiko nods distractedly. "I hope Jason and Inari are okay," she mutters, but it seems to be all she can do to keep the robot coordinated and on its feet.
Tracy deactivates the stealth mode on her suit so Cadena can find her. "I've got six of these sleep grenades, and some armor and a weapon for Randall," she tells him. "I'm thinking.. uh.. robot makes a commotion, one or more of them go to the door to see what's happening. Then we gas them. What do you think?"
"What if we breathe the gas?" Cadena inquires, still using the subvocal pickup. He scans the containers.
"Well, there must be gas masks in here somewhere, keep looking," Tracy claims. "If Mara is awake, she'll probably use her fans to keep the gas away from herself and Randall if he's close by. That's why we have to try and separate the goons."
"Commotion standing by," Akiko says.
The gas masks are in a different box all the way across the store room, next to the ominous-looking sealed environment suits meant to be used by firefighters.
Cadena trots over to the box. "I think I've found them, though I sincerely doubt they have anything in my size. Also, I am fairly certain they've disabled any transmitter the cyborg might have, but what if it has a receiver? Perhaps there's some way to warn it what we're doing, as soon as it goes off."
The hispanic CERT officer frowns thoughtfully at his cards. He glances toward the giant garage doors, currently closed, then pushes in more chips. "I'll raise," he says, though his hand looks bad.
"I.. have no idea," Tracy admits. "But I'm sure Mara will act to protect Randall, as soon as he's not under that gun. Do you see anything else on this manifest you think would be useful?"
Cadena's mouth is occupied, as he fetches gas masks, extracts them from their containers, and checks the filters. He trots over, dropping two at Tracy's feet, then rushes over to drop two with Akiko. Glancing at the monitor, and gauging Randall's glances, he says, "I don't know what's up, but I think their card game is about to end soon. I fear we may be running out of time."
Akiko picks it up and puts it on. "Mmf, mmf?" "Now?"
"Master, I need to know our plan before I can act, or I might simply get in the way," Cadena subvocalizes. "What is our plan of action?"
"Okay, I'm going unlock the door," Tracy says. She has to open the mask of her suit to put on the respirator though. "Once that's done, trigger the robot. I'll toss in the grenade when they react."
'Einie' shuffles around. Its gun-arm now faces the far wall of the station, aiming straight for the first 'O' in 'NORTH BEND MAINTENANCE STATION'.
"Then.. uh, we improvise as needed!" Tracy says, and starts on the door.
Cadena rushes back to hastily dig through in the hopes of finding something, anything the least bit useful, though mindful that time is short.
The white dog remembers something he saw ... somewhere before. He removes an oxygen breather from one of the environmental suits and tries to wrestle it onto his back to supply himself with some fresh air ... but once more, he is thwarted by his poor excuse for fingers. "Er ... master? Could you help me position this? Quickly? It might help me last longer in the gas. I apologize for not thinking of this sooner."
"Hold on," Tracy says, coming over to help strap the tank to Cadena's armor and gets the mouthpiece in position under his nose.
Cadena bows in thanks once it's finished, then takes position near the door.
"Okay, Akiko, do your thing," Tracy says, one hand on the door handle and a grenade in the other.
RATATATATAT The Einie starts unloading its gunarm into the far wall, turning the O into a zero with a slash through it! Bruno jerks up, turning around. "We got trouble out front! C'mon guys! Zeke, cover the geek."
Zeke draws his handgun like the other thugs do, and covers Randall. Randall raises his hands in the air with an ironic look on his face - he's been pretty well disarmed already. Bruno moves to the door control mechanism and hits the button. The garage doors start to slide open.
That's Tracy's cue! She opens the door and throws the grenade towards the opening doors.
The grenade bounces crazily off of the various detritus on the floor, and skitters to a stop against the southern wall, drawing the nearby thugs' attention. "What the--" and then it goes off in a cloud of pale orange gas! The thugs begin coughing.
"What do you see through the cameras, Akiko?" Tracy asks as she tries to get the face mask of the sneaksuit down over the gas-mask. "Can you carry a grenade, Cadena?"
Cadena looks bewildered at Tracy, then answers by grabbing up a grenade in his mouth and dashing into the room.
The sneaksuit fabric stretches, but it feels like it would be too tight a fit to try to force it over the gas mask.
Unfortunately, this is too much for the dog to manage, and he ends up dropping the grenade along the way. Seeing that he's now an open target in a room full of armed thugs, he continues his rush toward "Zeke."
Bruno whirls around looking for the source of the grenade. "We're under attack!" he yells. "I'll cover the front, you two cover the back! Get the dog!"
Zeke whirls around but finds an angry looking dog coming his way. "AUGH!" He squeezes off a shot by reflex.
The bullet plasters against Cadena's kevlar harness. It bruises, but at least it didn't go through!
The other thug instinctively takes a shot at the most obvious moving thing - Cadena! This one Cadena does feel, as it hits hard in his side, dazing him.
The Einhorn turns its guns toward the warehouse. Akiko's voice calls, "Caddie! Are you okay??"
"What the--" is all Bruno has time to say before the turn of the Einhorn catches him off guard. The gun-arm lines up with him... And opens fire!
Unfortunately, the shots go wild - perhaps Akiko didn't get the gun-arm control quite right. Bullets spray across the room, drawing the thugs' attention!
Bruno yells, "Something's taken control of the robot! Take it out!" He empties his HMG into it by way of example.
Electricity crackles as the bullets pound into the Einhorn mecha! Akiko's screens go haywire; she taps furiously on her PDA, trying to reboot the control software.
Bruno drifts back toward the door controls while pounding away, clearly intending to shut it out.
Two of the other thugs pour fire from their handguns at the Einhorn, one missing badly, the other striking up sparks but failing to get through its hideously tough armor. Zeke flips a switch and the vibro-bayonet on his handgun comes to life! "Never thought I'd have to use this," he mutters.
Randall, seeing his opportunity, lunges after Zeke, trying to wrestle him down to the ground!
"Get moving," he says to the dog, managing to capture him in a hold. "I've got this one!"
A voice comes over Tracy's line at just that second. "This is mostly-dead Jason calling Streaker-Tracy, Desoto is neutralized and we're alive. More or less. How goes the recon of Randall's imprisonment?"
After struggling with her mask (now wearing it outside the face of her suit), Tracy is back in stealth and picking up another grenade and the mask for Randall when the call comes through. "We found him," she replies, as she heads into the room and throws the next grenade back towards Bruno.
Zeke yipes as the gun goes flying! "No, they be takin' my gun!" He struggles in Randall's grasp.
"And are you two able to extract him safely? Or do I need to come rescue you too?" Jason asks.
"Working on it," Tracy hisses. "The giant robot slowed us a down, and I throw like a girl.."
Mara gets to her feet. Wisps of steam appear over her nostrils, and then ice crystals begin to form in the air before her muzzle!
The grenade bounces off the side of the control box! Bruno coughs as he's right next to the emitted gas.
Bruno chokes out, "Hold your breath!"
While the gas distracts the goons, Tracy turns and hurries towards Mara to try and get her free.
Cadena rushes over toward Mara, with the recently-acquired gun clenched between his teeth, vibroblade away.
"You are a girl. Do you need me to come help ... or should I stay here with Inari and entertain her?" Jason asks.
"Of course you should come and help!" Tracy replies. "Akiko's having problems with her robot."
Bruno coughs as he stumbles out of the gas cloud, accompanied by his thugs. "Zeke! Frotz it, you let the prisoner get the drop on you!" Randall grins back at him from where he's holding Zeke like a human shield. Bruno raises his machine gun and covers Randall, but looks unwilling to take the shot just yet.
Zeke struggles in Randall's hands. "Leggo, you pig!"
"Inari, don't do ... " Jason starts to transmit into the comm. The transmission gets cut off.
Bruno's eyes are drawn toward a gas mask floating in midair, working on Mara's shackles. He fires his machine gas mask into the air. "Drop it!" he orders the unknown entity.
Tracy obliges, and takes off and drops the gas mask - which was the only indicator of where she was anyway.
The Einhorn Crowd Protection Mecha suddenly snaps back into life as Akiko works her magic. The gun-arm focuses on Bruno. An amplified voice yells, "No, YOU drop it!"
Cadena, not seeing exactly where Tracy is, but aware that a heavy machine gun is pointing vaguely in her direction AND in the direction of the person (and creature) they're supposed to be rescuing, growls and rushes over toward Bruno, trying to get a bite on the offending gun.
Bruno yelps as the dog attacks him! "We've got a hacker, some sneaky jerk and now the pet dog?" he gripes. "Don't just stand there, help me!"
"Jason's on his way," Akiko subvocalizes. "Want me to drop the ceiling on 'em?"
"Hey, that's a good idea!" Tracy replies, and grabs up the dropped gun-with-vibroblade to try and hack through Mara's restraints while Cadena keeps everyone busy.
The chain parts under the vibroblade like cheese before a hot knife! Mara stands more fully, though constrained by the garage. She opens her mouth, preparing to breath. Randall releases Zeke and flings himself to the ground!
Only one of the guards is lucky enough to be able to roll with the attack! Bruno stares stupefied as the frozen air hammers toward him...
Two of the thugs are instantly blocks of ice! Thick ice covers Bruno from head to toe, including (unfortunately for the acquisitive Cadena) his machine gun. He stammers, shivering, "Wh... whuh?"
The last remaining guard on his feet points his gun first at Randall, then at the white dog, then at Mara, trying to figure out who to attack.
Cadena is completely caught off guard as powdery frost covers his fur, he can see his breath, and the gun becomes very, very cold.
Akiko swivels the Einhorn's gunarm, first to the lifter, then as Mara's breath chills the guards down, on the surviving guard. "Care to surrender?" her cheerful voice says over the Einhorn's amplifier.
The guard whirls and faces the Einhorn! "Eat hot lead!" he screams, emptying his gun at the robot.
Bruno shivers as he falls back heavily into the still-lingering cloud of sleep gas. "Frotzing... dog..."
The white dog snarls, landing on top of Bruno, trying to hold him down.
And then the gas gets to him - must be thicker low down - and he falls unconscious.
Mara takes in a deep breath, glaring around the room.
The white dog, at least temporarily protected from the effects of the gas by the rigged oxygen supply under his nose, leaps off of Bruno, and toward the wildly-firing thug!
In a flurry of fang and claw, the white dog leaps upon the thug, and snatches at his gun.
The guard keeps firing... fir-- "AH! MAD DOG!" he yells as Cadena strips his gun away. "Er. I surrender?" He raises his hands, noticing that he's now under the guns of the Einhorn and a severely upset dragon.
Tracy heads for Randall, telling him, "There's an armored jumpsuit and weapon through the door next to Mr. Surrender," she whispers, not breaking stealth (after all, the only one the goons have seen is Cadena so far). "Let's get out of here before Jason and Inari show and blame me for messing things up somehow."
Akiko breathes a sigh of relief, though she continues to cover the thugs with the Einhorn.
Randall nods to thin air, then starts taking charge of the situation by prising loose the Hammergun from one of the frozen thugs. "So good to see you've come around to see things my way," he drawls. "By the way... Did you know Zeke cheats at cards?"
"I thought you said you needed my help! You all look fine. Why, you, ooo," Jason complains over the radio. "You're determined to make it impossible for me to find any happiness at all. That's it, you're sleeping in the dumpster!"