trans_9 | Vatican [Open]

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Vatican [Open]

Once Atom had read the initial comm post, he headed over to the closest place where he thought people would be -- the Vatican, once converted into a fortress against outside attack. It had since been mostly restored to its original state, but some fortifications still remained -- hopefully, some food and supplies, too. He'd heard people had used it as a safe area before, so maybe some of them would head there now. As he touched down within its limits, his rocket boosters kicked off. His footsteps seemed to echo through the tall construction as he walked along the paved stone... but for now, he seemed to be alone, in the midst of dead silence.

Or was he?

"Hello?" he called. "Is anyone there? Does anyone need help?"

[Robutts will be forthcoming 83. I'll bring some Terminators, but if anyone else could NPC some other robots, that'd be great!

P.S. I will be waiting for more people to tag in before I add robots.]

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"Quit it! Stop!" It wasn't clear whether Atom was talking to Erhart or the attacking robots. The sounds of the droids' bodies shattering beneath the face of Erhart's onslaught sounded deafening to him; he watched with horror as their limbs were rent from them and scattered across the floor of the Vatican. Lifeless, unresponsive, no more sentient now than the metal fragments and gears that had been used to construct them. The screeching of distressed metal, the snicker-snack of Erhart's sword as it cleaved into them with brute, unrelenting force... Unlike a human, he didn't have the luxury of forgetting what he saw; it was etched permanently into his mind in every minute detail, like a pattern into glass -- each horrific detail perfectly preserved for all time.

For a moment, Gesicht's memories were superimposed over his own, memories of rows of prone robot bodies strewn across the barren dirt of Persia, of children firebombed in their orphanages, of a middle-aged man, his face covered in dirt and his eyes reddened with tears, screaming accusations at the peacekeeping forces that had moved into his city.

Then he was back in the present. Atom grabbed a large chunk of the fallen stonework, lifting it over his head as if it were made of cardboard and throwing it directly into the path of several of the oncoming droids. For now, it created a temporary barrier between them and the humans under fire. "Stop fighting!"

Erhart pauses, taking a moment to kick a blaster towards Jamie and Cedric. "Use this for cover!" He roars, drawing his bolt pistol and jamming his back up against the huge chunk of stone, then peeping over it and blasting away with a shot from the bolt pistol at another one of the battle droids.

An entire swath of droids go, two for Punchy, considering how delicate they are. Two more for Atom and Erhart pegs the last one. But the fight wasn't over. Three droideka's quickly roll onto the scene and intersect themselves between the two most dangerous targets; Atom and Erhart.

They unfold their bodies and guns, quickly activating their shields before anyone can get a solid shot. With two on Erhart and one on Atom their dual double blasters begin to unleash a withering barrage.

The troubles weren't over for everyone in the back as five more battle droids make their way to the scene, adding more inaccurate fire from their rifles in their direction.

Punchy makes the dumb mistake of rushing up and trying to punch a droideka attacking Erhart, being so very used to just being able to pound his way through things with Puppet. This does not go well for him. And it's a pity cursing isn't actually an offensive capability, because if the droideka had ears, they'd be catching fire right now.

As much as he's loath to abandon the really dangerous targets and take out the smaller enemies, it seems like the only place he can be truly useful here. He whips around before the droideka can turn its attention to him, if it will at all, and rushes one of the battle droids, managing to avoiding getting peppered with rifle shot by a combination of sheer luck and the general inaccuracy of the droids.

He beelines for the one on the far right. He's going to football-tackle that sucker.

...there is absolutely nothing wrong with this plan.

This was wrong. It was all wrong.

Atom's rocket boosters burst into life; he tackled the nearest droideka bodily, aiming to hurl it at two of the others. "I said quit it! I don't care how you've been programmed; you can't just hurt people! That's not what robots are for!"

Even worse. Cedric just barely peekrf up as the battle was going on, nearly blasted into oblivion. This feeling seemed to chill his blood.

But there was something they could do---use the blaster. He lunged out to grab it, yanking the thing in the rest of the way and practically tossing it at Jamie with a yell of pain. Nicked. Damnit.

"You can use this, yeah?"

As for Cedric, he'd thrown himself behind a plank and hurled a chunk of rubble as hard as he could, shooting for a delicate joint somewhere. It was about all he could do.

Erhart staggers under the barrage, knocked down and onto his back for a moment, his bolt pistol rising and tracking of the droidekas barraging him, his helm activating maximum polarization so he isn't blinded by the blaster flashes and roars, "Concentrate fire on this target immediately!" He unleashes an entire 7 round magazine of mass-reactive death towards the droideka, trying to overwhelm the shields and praying to the Emperor that his companions take the hint to try to smash the shield from a multi-angle blitz.

"Foul, fou-" One of the battle droids yells before his head flies off from the impact on the ground. Punchy knocked out one but finds himself in the midst of the other four. Another droid steps on the blaster Cedric slid down the hall, slipping and falling. It's entire arm disconnects from its body due to the impact.

Atom might find pushing up against an energy barrier rather difficult, however, but the impact causes sparks to fly. It turns up its cannons at Atom's chest and opens fire again.

The gyro-jet rounds from Erhart's pistol impact and explode against the shields of the one droideka, causing sparks to fly. As the incoming rubble comes in from Cedric, a dud bolt shell collides with it. When the bolt fails to explode, it forces a shard of the rubble into the shield and overloads it.

The droideka begins to emit a loud whine and its fusion reactor overloads, releasing a massive explosion. The other two droid's shields fail in the explosion and Atom, no longer held back by the shield, slams into the one, wiping it out. The other staggers, off balance and temporarily out of power.

"Aye!" Jamie goes to grab the sliding blaster, but winds up having to throw himself off to the side to avoid crashing into the droid as it slips and falls. The severed arm of the droid lands with a thump next to him, and he reaches down to grab its blaster, which is much better shape than the one that got stepped on.

He launches himself back to his feet, running up to the barrier and ducking to shield himself from the droideka's explosion, letting his chunk of decorative stone drop to his side as he does so. He's got the blaster, and that's much more effective anyway. Once the blast passes, he quickly pops up and takes aim at the remaining droideka, hoping to take advantage while it seems to be off balance.

"Take that, ye wee tin kettle!"

Oh, whoops. Maybe Punchy should have considered the other enemy robots before tackling the one. Note for future battles, should he live long enough for that to be applicable.

Clearly he'll just need to beat one of these droids with the dismembered arm of another.

"Yo, Jamie! Could seriously use some backup!"

Okay, so much for that plan. He squeezes off a shot or two, but he can't leave Punchy to be overwhelmed by the droids. He can't exactly use his blaster on them either - not without risking serious injury to Punchy - but he does have that rubble. He ducks back down and grabs it, then throws it at the legs of the droid closest to him. They seem like they'll unbalance easily enough. Maybe he'll be able to take one or two down.

"Get that one with the wheels while it's staggered," he calls to the others in the meantime. With luck maybe they can take it out with the more powerful weapons. "I'll take care of this lot!"

He turns to rush towards the group, because that worked so well last time. Then again, Jamie's never needed powers to hold his own in hand-to-hand combat...and he's got a sword. Tucking the blaster away, he draws the claymore and aims for those more fragile-looking limbs. "Creag An Tuire!"

Cedric continues to help with the rubble, as he's finally found something to do. He watches Jamie and hits at the knees, staying behind to continue his throwing.

There's no weapon to protect him out there, not anymore.

Erhart stands, closing on the remaining droideka and bringing down the Black Sword in a tremendous swing, blue energy arcing off the power sword as he cuts down.

"DIE."

Atom didn't flinch as he was shot at; the cannon fire could burn his plantsuit, but it would take something more on the order of a zeronium shell to cause him serious injury. Instead, he concentrated on knocking the droideka over, trying not to pay attention to the scent of burning lubricant and fusion explosions.

The silence is finally broken with the last of the Droidekas destroyed.

The remained battle droids are calmly wiped out by the efforts of the few who aren't superpowered by technology. As they trip, get knocked over, or simply get bludgeoned to death by their own body parts, the last surviving droids are knocked out.

For the moment, it seems the threat has passed.

Bludgeoning robots to death with their own body parts: Punchy's work here is done.

Except it isn't, because the instant the droids are all on the ground he's examining one, trying to figure out how they're programmed and if there are any ways to upload something into their network. He drags the droid's...corpse, he guesses, off to the side to where he dropped his back of laptops earlier.

There ain't no rest for the wangstas, it seems.

Erhart kneels for a moment, voicing his devotion to the Emperor in a swift prayer of thanks, then straightens, looking to the rest.

"I must find the breach, and hold there. Good luck to you all, there should be enough weapons dropped by these... things. The Emperor protects."

With that, he's heading for the breached part of the Vatican's defenses, where the droids presumably slipped in.

"Aye, good luck to ye as well," Jamie says to Erhart, then turns to leave as well. He should really make sure Victoria's alright, after all. However, he stops as he spots Punchy dragging the droid off to one side to do...something to it. He has no idea what is, but that's not about to stop him from chiming in about it.

"Look, do ye really think it's a good idea to do that here? What if more of these robots come back?"

"Gotta get cheddar while the bank's open, dawg." Punchy opens up one of his laptops. "I'ma reprogram one of these bitches if it's the last shit I do. You game to help?"

Punchy gets a blank look as Jamie tries - and fails - to parse most of what he's saying. At least he understands the word 'reprogramming'...and that trying to help Punchy with that directly would be a bad plan.

"Och, I'd only slow ye down." And that's being generous. "I'm not so good with those computer things," he adds, indicating the laptop with a jerk of his chin. "But I can guard the corridor while ye do whatever it is ye need to do."

"Good. I'mma need someone at my back." Even if tackling the droids was totally working, but Punchy works best relatively uninterrupted. "I'll give you the signal when I'm good to go, then we can book it somewhere safer."

"Aye," he replies, then moves off to take up a position nearby where he can best see if anyone or anything is coming their way.

Now that Erhart's gone to plug the breach in the defenses, Jamie's hopeful that there aren't going to be any more robots coming in - but he'll be ready for them if they do.

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Vatican [Open]

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