Best Gadget Buddies [Open]

[morphitudinous]

There was only one destination in mind when the war started: work. Billy had dashed down to the transportation tubes, arriving on the first floor when he'd hit a snag: a robot swarm already assaulting the Med Bay and Special Weapons. But that wouldn't stop him: his coworkers and friends could be there, and the lab could easily hold the key to fighting back. He'd struggled and shoved his way through, roughed up very well by the time he crossed the threshold of his lab.

The hordes were closing in. Only his guns and a narrow doorway stood between Billy and death, and so far it seemed that death was gaining the upper hand. Would there ever be time to cobble together a better solution or escape? He doubted it. Not unless help arrived for them.

(ooc: Defend the laboratory? Your characters can be trapped with Billy rigging together some kind of defense system or trying to get through to him. If it gets bad, though, they might all have to escape and blow up the tech...)

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Entering Special Weapons [Open]

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

While Special Weapons was certainly one of the more important areas on the ship to lock down in terms of not letting their enemies get hold of valuable weaponry, it was the sound of distant weapons fire that hastened Zouichi forward. The bike made quick work of the distance, but it looked like actually getting into the place would be a tad more difficult. The robot assault on Special Weapons was already well underway; he couldn't discern from here exactly who was inside.

As his bike pulled up, he punched a stray robot BECAUSE HE COULD, sending it flying backward. He was weakened, but not powerless.

[bequiet_hescreamed]

An exploding robot announced the presence of Clef, who was not quite awesome enough to ride in on a motorcycle punching robots but may have been attracted by the noise. He ducked back behind a corner to reload his weapon, which looked something like a crossbow, before taking another shot.

[hit-girl-mindy.livejournal.com]

And here entered three new people into the fray, one of which was perched on the back of another. She was no less dangerous however, aiming with precision, trying to make a path for the three of them to get through. She also seemed to betray no emotion about being injured, though it was obvious she wasn't happy about it.

"Ruffnut, Hana? You ok?"

[ruffntumblenut.livejournal.com]

Ruffnut grunted and called up, "Still alive."

She was bracing her charge with a shield and holding a spear in the other hand while acting as a beast of burden carrying Mindy on her shoulders. Their moving was less then graceful, but their being of one mind and spirit made things easier.

[moms-temperment.livejournal.com]

Hana was focused on covering their backs, due to their arrangement making it difficult for either of them to turn around.

His grinning face popped into view and he nodded. "I'm good." Before slipping behind them both once again.

Inside! (because the die rolled high)

[seesbosscrotch.livejournal.com]

"You know, paladins aren't normally trained in guns and ranged weapons, but back in the days," the paladin said calmly as he wandered out of the back, utterly unruffled despite the chaos enveloping the ship outside, "I worked with one who'd custom-built his own rocket launcher. That was a mighty fine weapon, too. Too bad I don't have one of those right now. Anyway, you look like you could use someone to be a target while you're working..."

[morphitudinous]

Billy was rarely so relieved to hear another voice. He couldn't risk turning around, but he did shout enough. "Do you have experiences with building rocket launchers too? Maybe---or I could, possibly---argh!"

A shot from the other side got in that just grazed him, smashing another vial. Great.

[seesbosscrotch.livejournal.com]

"Sorry, I'm a jewelcrafter by trade," Mar said, still cheerful as he grabbed Billy to yank him down. He dug into his backpack, then offered up a bandage made of alarmingly high-quality cloth. "Here. Patch yourself up and then we'll talk planning."

Unholstering his shield, Mar stood up, making himself a target. He didn't have his healing, his holy magic, or even most of his endurance, but the elementium shield was forged out of Azeroth's mightiest known metal, as was the armor he routinely wore. Still, no matter what, protecting others was really his only reason for living any more.

[morphitudinous]

"Of course," Billy gasped as he thudded against the ground, accepting the bandage with a dazed expression. He'd been locked in one mode for so long that it took him a few seconds to release his gun.

He rolled over and made a messy attempt at stopping the bleeding in what cover he could find, scrambling back up when it was done. "Right. I'll chain together some weapons on auto-fire. We should have enough ammunition for an hour."

He got straight to work on the floor, muttering angry phrases at the pain.

[seesbosscrotch.livejournal.com]

Don't mind the loud noise of ricochets! Mar had angled his shield slightly so the incoming ordnance glanced off it at an angle, carefully keeping as much of his body behind it.

"Sounds like a plan. Maybe then we can crack open the place and help ourselves to some sweet sweet payback."

Inside cause whoops?

[ronnae.livejournal.com]

Who had been running multiple tasks all day and all night the day prior? A certain half-orc girl! A certain half-orc girl who had been knocked out for most of the day while the announcement was made and completely missed every bit of what was going on until the ruckus outside her little crevice room inside her workspace woke her enough to go check.

A small wall slid open nearby where Billy was hiding and the familiar red head peeked her head outside, rubbing her eyes sleepily.

"This isn't where you, *yawns* test weapons at... You'll g-get in trouble..." Of course she said it to no one in particular, not realizing what was going on.

[morphitudinous]

"Ronnie?"

Even in the middle of a war---no, especially in the middle of a war, Billy's consciousness tended to focus on her when she was nearby. He shifted to face her while rigging what was becoming the base of a blast shield.

"We're all in enough trouble already. There's a war going on," he explained tersely, twisting a bolt into place.

[ronnae.livejournal.com]

"Well, yeah I know that much sweetheart... I haven't forgotten 'bout the Ohmnies." her voice was a stark contrast to the chaos around, a peaceful, sleepy and sweet tone of voice.

[morphitudinous]

Billy jerked his head to indicate a negative, swearing as more gunshots bounced off Mar's shield.

"No, it's happening right this second. An evil AI's taken over. We've lost our powers and most of our strength. Robots are swarming the ship and trying to kill us. They're just outside!"

He shifted over at his position in front of the blast shield, offering her a spot to help, though he worried too. There was sadness and fear. How bad would this be for her?

[ronnae.livejournal.com]

Ronnae blinked a few times and her thoughts finally caught up with what was going on.

Her brow narrowed as she flinched a bit at a stray shot the bounced off nearby making a loud bang.

Peeking around to check the enemy, she looked to Billy determined.

"If you can get me to my work area, I might have something to help us fight back."

Breaking Through the Lines

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Amidst the mob of robots swarming Special Weapons, Zouichi was slowly making his way toward the entrance, beyond which (he hoped) Billy and the others were maintaining the line. There was seemingly no end to the number of droids making their way here -- but it'd be easier to defend if he was inside. He was focused enough on clearing a path that he might not notice another crew member joining him...

[thewunderkind]

"Out of my way, you stupid pieces of overused metallic junk!" Lash was definitely not in the mood to let them walk all over her, as she flung who knew how many guns she had found, pieces of scrap metal she used like hitting rods and rode inside the modified, damaged but still working Bigfoot. Shadow's old mech were finally getting the battle use they should have had a long while ago.

The frontal via had since been broken and Lash was easy to see - which was pretty dangerous. Without her CO powers, it was much harder to move the mech around in rough terrain. The result was a very angry, pissed off Wunderkind.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Zouichi looked at the Bigfoot, then back at the robots. Then he ran up one of the walker's legs, ascending until he was standing next to the cockpit.

"Don't tell me those missile pods just for show."

[thewunderkind]

"They're not!" she answered back, trying to push her way in. "But they've only been working at intervals and I've only got six left! I want to make them count!"

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"In that case..." Zouichi holstered his other weapons, snapping the coil rifle down and setting it to a high yield blast. Even if the effect were dampened, it should --

The blast lit up the area in an instant; a bloom of diffuse energy sent a mass of the robots in front of the Bigfoot's legs flying. That didn't stop the robots who hadn't gotten caught in the blast from crushing forward as quickly as they could, but it was a temporary reprieve.

THE SLOW THREAD: ROBOT HARDMODE

[bequiet_hescreamed]

They were like disorganized backup for the other guys - a team of late-comers riding the tidal wave of robots that had been alerted to the attempted breaching of Special Weapons. They converged on the area separately, lacking any form of dependable communication with the current outages.

Clef had actually arrived earlier, but had been overwhelmed by the robots. His weapon - a makeshift exploding crossbow made out of socks and flour - actually sort of sucked, and managed to break after he fired the first shot. Fortunately, he had brought some duct tape and only had to hide in an air vent for a few minutes before he was once again able to join the fray. Not a moment too soon, either - the hallway had in the meantime become clogged with strange, lumpy metal beings that looked as though they were put together out of household tools. Clef took aim and fired straight for the--

... Well, at least the wall had taken parts of the Dalek out with it.

[windwitch]

Maxine wasn't so much late as she was running furtively from place to place, using her normal overabundance of energy and her extra anxiety from what was going on to propel her. She had to try to do something useful, and she wasn't sure where to start-- so she was going wherever it seemed like someone could probably use back up. Her abilities may not have been at full strength, but she could damn well try. She heard some noise and rushed to where it originated. There could be someone in trouble.

"Clef! Are you okay?"

[bequiet_hescreamed]

"Maxine!" He hadn't seen her almost since they had awoken from the pods - it was a big ship, and he had been on a lot of away missions. To say that he was pleasantly surprised to see her alive and well in the middle of all this would be an understatement. Her lack of obvious weapons confused him a bit, considering the circumstances. Though he was a bit scraped up and more than a little dirty, he wondered how she was even surviving.

"Are you sure it's safe for you to be out here?"

[windwitch]

Maxine looked a little concerned, frowning to herself as she approached. She felt a little lost, here, with her powers on the decline the way they were. It was hard for her to know exactly what to do. She'd managed the last time she'd lost her powers, but it hadn't been so much fighting for her, then...

She moved closer, obviously on edge, though her powers weren't stirring up her hair or outfit now. "I don't know," she admitted. "But I couldn't just hide. My powers aren't totally working but they're also not totally off, either. I don't know how much I can help or how well I can defend myself but I couldn't just sit back while all of this was happening, you know? I had to try to help..."

Later, a Weapons Run

[morphitudinous]

When the path from Special Weapons was somewhat clear, Billy found himself hauling a bulging backpack throughout the ship. He spent his time in the shadows, sniping as many robots as he could on his runs---but it wasn't enough. Inevitably, no matter how fast he ran, at least one hit would catch him. By then, he wasn't doing well at all.

Billy eventually reached a fortified place, unloading the guns and knives from his pack. "Here, take them," he said breathlessly, his head feeling too heavy to look up at who he was addressing. "Is everyone armed?"