trans_9 | The Battle That Ended The Century

Entry tags:

The Battle That Ended The Century

People say that war is hell. This looked it.

Buildings and cars and bodies are scattered like broken toys as far as the eye can see, stretching out toward a dirty horizon. Even the clouds seems streaked with mud and blood, and they're taking it out on everyone below with a constant stream of cold, soaking rain.

The sounds of fighting seem to come from all directions, but at this moment, there's no one else in sight.

A breather. The calm before the storm.

[[OOC: This is for everyone who was involved with "The Lurking Fear". Questions go to Milo or Kaylin.]]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Sheeana's shelter was a dying fire and some crude barriers built under the overhanging awning of a great warehouse next to a bombed out airfield. Inside the corrugated steel warehouse, her worm paced, uneasy from the moisture. Perhaps Toph could sense the seismic disturbance.

The fog meant Sheeana could not bring her worm into play now, but there was no time to explain that to Katara. So close too...

She had to flatten herself to the ground again as a spray of bullets whizzed over the spot she was just at. One had grazed her ribs, opening a cut there, an otherwise superficial wound. The fog made for spastic, inaccurate fire.

She crawled into the warehouse, reaching up to pull the door open. She felt as if she were much smaller again, being hustled away from the Honored Matres' attack. Darwi was not here to save her though, save in Other Memory.

The sound of boots came after her. They will come for me... She thought and they did, opening bursts of fire clearing the space. Sheeana had hidden herself though, behind the great shadow...

...Which resolved itself into the Worm, and crushed the three men, rolling over them until they were mushy pulp beneath their grey longcoats and oddly shaped helmets.

"Over here! Weapons!" She called from the doorway to her erstwhile comrades and began calming the worm with whispered words and strokes of its leathery hide. The blood and moisture it disliked immensely.

Pushing past a few more obstacles and checking for enemy fire, Billy finally arrives in the trench with the rest of them. "Hey," he calls, facing the unfamiliar person but acknowledging Jamie and Renne with a wave. "How can we help?"

The wave to him goes unknown but the voice doesn't. Smiling a little, the beastie bumbles carefully close enough to this Booth-gent to give him a sniff.

"Eee. Is yeu hurrr-ted?"

Then his ears give a twitch and his nose another sniff. Another Human. A flash of wary guard skitters across his skin in a thin amber line.

Loren was definitely someone Kang could get to like. It was obvious by the look on her face how much she was enjoying this. Shaking his head, he ducked when one of the Panzers fired at them; for a brief moment he really wished he could still use his magic.

There were several long wooden crates stacked up by a nearby wall, about the right size to possibly hold more ammo for the weapon Loren had, and he dashed over, opening one of them to find four anti-tank rockets. "Over here!"

Dustin glanced at the ground, a charming but distinctly proud grin crossing his scarred face. Yes, Lash, those are his own designs, and indeed, they are genius in every way, shape, and form! Dustin knows this and he’s letting every bit of your muttered praise and squeals of joy inflate his ego to the point of bursting. The only humbling factor to all of this was the fact that he couldn’t even understand the devices which he had created—and unfortunately, neither did Lash.

Well, to some degree. Some prodding might help, perhaps? Dustin regained his usual feel of urgency and partial annoyance, waiting for this eccentric weapons specialist to finish babbling so that he could get to the point.

“—Yes, yes, you’d be surprised what twenty years of constant hunting and blueprint churning can bring,” the scruffy man nodded impatiently, though he was still resigned to answer her questions to assure himself that he knew them as well, “Of course I’m—I’m only human. Well, kind of human. Human by concept—it’s a long story. Now, the tank? That’s a—“

”—fusion chamber that combines the most abundant elements (of both types) into progressively larger polypeptide chains, creating massive amounts of radiation and superheated bullets that can either be pressurized and fired or vented to burn or disintegrate intangible foes, which is really convenient considering that most of our enemies here are spectral in nature and thus are especially suscept—“

Dustin gnashed his teeth, vision swimming as pain shot through his brain. Once again the gears came to a grinding halt.

“—gun. A really, really big gun. I got it to work earlier but I can’t remember what I did. Seems to be the same for most of these…”

He trailed off, ashamed. This is pathetic.

“…Keep that one, it looks simple enough,” Dustin motioned towards the modified P-32, “If memory serves me correctly—“ which it probably didn’t “—then that one works like a…semi-automatic Taser. Two settings, I think. There should be enough rounds in that magazine to last you for a few hours.”

Tony had his shirt torn up and turned into a makeshift bandage around his middle. It was stained with blood and he was carrying what looked like a lightsaber. He gave her hand a squeeze and smiled wryly. "I've been better... Exhausted and I can't do the big and furry thing right now for some reason. Alive though. How're you?"

Plan be damned, Bruce waits for a gap in the salvo then scurries over to Samus' position, firing off a few shots to force their attacker's into cover.

"There goes our powerhouse. You hurt?"

Julian charged into the fight, as he was prone to do. Despite the day having taken a severe emotional toll on him, there was still a determination to continue. Julian was capable of many things, but surrendering wasn't in his nature.

Besides, he owed it to Kon to make sure Kara got through this. Much as he had been hurt by her, he wouldn't be able to live with himself if something happened to Sofia. Katara was on his team, she was his responsibility, and he was going to get her through this alive.

He needed to find Nori.

So once more into the breech he went, heading in low through the fog and tackling one of the soldiers.

There wasn't so much driving on Kaylee's part as constant repair where a wire came loose while steering the tank in the right direction. Still, due to months of practice from working with Mal, she managed to keep her guard up, and as soon as the gunfire started up, she was moving the tank along to get out of the way.

She listened closely for several moments for more gunfire, then headed for shelter. All seemed quiet, and the tank slowed enough that it wouldn't run into anything while Kaylee shouted back up through the half-busted hatch. "Y'alright, Billy?"

"Julian!" Damn it, he should have waited. They should have all gone at once.

Sofia followed, but there was no tackling. There wasn't even punching.

No, the greatest asset a dancer had were her legs.

There was an audible crack as she kicked a soldier right in the jaw. She shoved him onto the ground, making it all that harder for the others to take aim at her. She reached for the soldier's weapon while he was still stunned.

"Affirmative! Keep going, I'll take care of this!" A small unit of soldiers was coming their way, preparing to bust up the tank some more. Billy hurled a grenade as quickly as he could while dodging bullets, using the cover of thick sheets of metal, darkness, and trash. Somehow, thank the Power, he avoided being shot.

He really hoped they reached the shelter soon, if only to get out of the rain for a few moments. It was starting to get cold.

She had a few good bumps and scrapes. They hurt (They kinda hurt a lot), but she didn't give up so easily.

"Fine. I need a gun," because she couldn't afford for them waste time on being concerned over her.

Kaylee didn't like what she was hearing and more than she liked how little she could see outside the tank. But orders were orders, and she knew enough to keep going if someone told her to.

It took longer than she would have liked to get the tank into the small bit of shelter, but eventually it was in. Now it was just a matter of checking to see if Billy had made it, too. If trouble was still about, it was better for her to just stay put, but she didn't like the idea of leaving Billy alone. She looked through any space she could to see if the coast was clear before heading back toward the hatch.

Fortunately, the coast was finally clear. Looking and listening for trouble as he did so, Billy climbed up to meet Kaylee outside the tank and help her out if she needed it. He didn't look too much worse for the wear, excluding the addition of more mud and a few thin lines of blood on his arms that throbbed in protest.

"Kaylee?" He poked at the door, waiting for her.

Good, he was okay, and if he was calling down to her it probably meant they were in the clear. She opened up the hatch with little difficulty, and smiled up at him. "Least we're out of the rain for a bit."

Climbing out was a bit trickier than just sliding in had been, and she finally did have to accept Billy's help with it. "Thanks, Billy," she added, once she was out. "Would've been a difficult move to make without ya."

"It wasn't a problem," Billy assured with the slightest of smiles as he carefully guided her to the top of the tank. It was trickier than usual with slippery hands, but he managed.

Then, he carefully slid down to examine the rest of the tank. "What needs to be done now?"

"Even if it ain't a problem in the least, it's still appreciated."

Repairs, on the other hand...Kaylee wrinkled her nose as she followed Billy off of the tank. "More'n I'd care to say, really, but given the other choices she's in mint condition. Treads are doin' alright, but I do wanna see if I can't do somethin' 'bout makin' the steerin' work better, and then there's the shorted-out wires every two inches, 'n platin' gone to gou shi..."

Billy planted his chin in his hand, giving their dilemma careful thought. "I'll begin work on the wiring, if that's all right with you. Do you want to examine the steering?"

"Got scratched up but dealing... how did you get a lightsaber?" Somebody was jealous, but she came closer, "Do you need the medbay? And did either of you see anything else around here?"

"Works fine for me," Kaylee agreed, moving to slide under the tank. "Gotten a pretty good look at the steerin' from inside, anyhow. Can just go right off of that."

"It's a dream lightsaber, really. But considerin' that we're bouncin' through dreams like a damn pinball, it works." He laughs shakily and shook his head. "Nah... I'm good for a while longer."

Which was true. his hands were still starting to tremble from exhaustion though, no matter how hard he tried to make them sit still.

"Haven't seen anyone since I bust Leaf outta her dream..."

"Here, take one of mine!" Superman said, taking one of the pistols and tossing it to Samus. "I can find another if need be. Remember that we're not playing by our rules right now."

He may be powerless at the moment, but if sacrificing some of his own help to aid others meant someone could keep going, then so be it.

Loren almost didn't duck in time. She needed to get out of range fast and that giant stack of ammo Kang was standing right by? That looked really nice right about now.

She made a mad dash for Kang.

Jamie nods to Billy briefly as he arrives - although he doesn't look directly at him.

Instead, he slowly pulls himself into an upright position - careful not to be seen above the top of the trench. He's quiet about it, but in an unguarded moment, the pain the motion costs him is reflected in his eyes.

The flash of color on Renne doesn't mean anything to him, however, so he doesn't know that the wee blue beastie is wary of his arrival. Now that he's in a more-or-less comfortable position, he's more concerned with what's going on with the battle.

"Have ye seen a lot of movement from the enemy here?" Jamie hopes not. He'd dearly love to rest for a moment.

Instinct tells him to dive flat when the gunshots go off, to make as small of a target as possible, and he's able to do that - although it's not without pain.

He nods when Billy returns, not trusting himself to speak for a moment, then clears his throat. "Aye," he says briefly, then adds, "You're right, though. We need to get out of here if we can."

Maneuvering himself into a better position, he looks around to see if there's a better way to go. "Maybe if we try over here?"

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 8 of 15

The Battle That Ended The Century

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject