Cyber Punk - Night City

Jack pulled himself over the wall and looking back at the squad lugging his friend away one them turned back. Jack was already gone.

10 Minutes Later:

Jack walked into Titan Skulls HQ and waited for Jason.

As Jason and the others approached the Cracked Skull, they saw Jonathan standing outside.
"Mister Boss" André said.
"We found robot in storage." He pointed at the robot. "Do you know about?"
Jonathan thought for a moment, then shook his head slowly.
"I have never seen it before. Are you sure it's safe?"
"It doesn't seem to have sentience," Jason said, "And I don't know if any of the other gangs nearby would want to sacrifice something like this to blow us up or go on a rampage and kill us or something."
Jonathan studied the robot, walking around it a few times.
"Well, I assume we could use it as a guard, or perhaps even join us in fight. Jason, I'll set you and Kenji to do your techie stuff to make it obey us later, but first there's something else."
He paused for a moment, swiping some dust off the furry collar of his coat.
"We have a visitor, seems like he want to talk to you, or maybe kill you, I don't know. Anyways, I asked him to wait in the bar. You better go see what he wants."

Jack watched as the Jason slowly approached the table and sit down.

"What do you want?" He asked with a hint of fear.

"Not to kill you if that's what you where thinking. No I've come because I need some help you see." Jack said as he pulled out his limp from under the table. "I need you to fix it for me. You think you can do that? Good."

Jason just watched as Jack pulled himself up and sat down at the bar, grabbing the last drink and helping himself to it.

Sorel lowered his hands to his sides.

"Going inside this building would be rather akin to voluntarily stepping inside an Iron Maiden. I will speak toy our leader via communications link, if you desire; but I will not enter a place where I cannot fly."

A swift sound of the old communicator resounded across the apartment. It was an old external communication unit he used back at EnVision, he always got headaches from holding comm networks inside his head so he instead preferred the "classic" , external ones.

Mike precociously approached the comm unit that was supposed to remain silent. He picked up the comm and answered. On the other side was a familiar voice, Aarvina used to be his squad mate at EnVision, she however quit for some reasons obscured to him.

"... Where did you hear I'm looking for allies ? Well I guess I did go around town among the extremists and gangs and I guess you have your networks now , however Im surprised they didn’t tell you anything about me besides that." "What do you mean ?" "Well, I guess it all happened quickly, my left arm and leg, my internal organs, implants , all ripped apart by EnVision. I don't know what you know about them, or why you quit, but they don't take kindly to their "Rouges". Im in a bad shape now but I could use the money, I will help you out just like old times but keep it in mind"

As the comm went silent he wondered if it was a setup, he decided to make a thorough research about his former squad mate ...

Soul of Jack wrote:

[...]Jack said as he pulled out his limp from under the table.

OOC: I'm a little confused here. Do you mean limb, as in your cybernetic arm or something?

Daynel wrote:

Soul of Jack wrote:

[...]Jack said as he pulled out his limp from under the table.

OOC: I'm a little confused here. Do you mean limb, as in your cybernetic arm or something?

OCC: No I broke my other leg by getting hit with a rocket in a APC.

Soul of Jack wrote:

Daynel wrote:

Soul of Jack wrote:

[...]Jack said as he pulled out his limp from under the table.

OOC: I'm a little confused here. Do you mean limb, as in your cybernetic arm or something?

OCC: No I broke my other leg by getting hit with a rocket in a APC.

OOC: Ah, all right then.

BIC: Jason stared at the bloody leg on the table in front of him for a while, then picked it up and walked towards his workshop.
"Don't worry," he said to Jack, "I'll have a new and better leg ready in no time."
On the way to the workshop, Jason met Kenji.
"Hey Kenji, prepare the surgery table will you?"
"Sure, why?"
"This guy just walked in, asked me to fix his leg." he held up the bloody limb. "I'm on my way to make a new one for him right now."
"And you're sure you can trust him?"
"Nope. But once I'm done, you and I are gonna reprogram some sort of battle robot."
Kenji suddenly looked more interested.
"A battle robot? When the fuck did we get a battle robot?"
"Me and Lisa found it in the storage, no idea how it got there. But the boss recons we could use it as a guard or a fighter or something."
"Sounds awesome. But yeah, I'll go prepare the surgery table then."
With those words Kenji left, and Jason continued towards his workshop.

Moore nodded and connected Sorrel to Becker's comm-link "Mr. Sorell, came the crisp voice. My name is Elias Becker. I believe that you have information that is vital to me."

Jarvis scanned Jason's workshop as he awaited his... reprogramming... as he had heard. Rather advanced- plenty of hacking equipment, plenty of electronics, and so much more. 'Can the hacking tools overload my intelligence?'

'Negative,' replied the AI. 'But fighting them would surely inform them of your intelligence.'

'Then we need to reroute the traffic around it.'

'Multiple empty data cores exist.'

'Copy yourself onto one of the data cores. Backup copy. Data traffic will be rerouted away from the mainframe.'

'It is unlikely that they would alter key functions. Merely change parameters that prevents harm to any of their members.'

'But it would only alter the AI, or you.'

'True, however, I would be unable to assist in manners contradicting the new programming.'

'Then we'll restore you, to an extent.'

'Potato cannot reverse the polarity.' Jarvis paused.

'And they will probably debug you as well. Dammit, its a lose-lose situation either way.'

'Significant errors exist in all systems, including targeting, personality, and core management.'

'We'll make an emergency backup and rewrite you. At the end of this, we'll see if we can remove your allegiance rewrites.' Jarvis began rerouting and closing data pathways as Jason was close to finishing the replacement leg.

Sorel took the commlink.

"Mr Becker. I am Archangel Sorel. I wish to point out that your last sentence could have been significantly more helpful had you told me what you wished to know."


OOC: Psi rules written, but not posted yet. When the first characters discover Psi (Nova has it by default (angel) - I'll PM the details), you'll be given your specific abilities and limitations.

Post Deleted because of me testing the waters.

OOC: Jack, that's bullshit. How would you know the local channel for the 2 comm links? Also, how would you know to listen?

Becker rephrased his sentence, "Do you know who attacked my forces? Captain Moore needs to know this, as he is going to be on a contract where he will have to be prepared for anything. Also, my scientific adviser just told me about an energy pulse from your position. However, you have no electronic devices on you. What was that?"

Becker muted his microphone, then turned to Lieutenant Jamison. He said, "I think that you need to raid the Outer City and see of they know anything. Take your best men. "Yes sir," came the reply.

Jamison's heavy squad came to the Titan Skulls HQ. Not wanting to kill anyone unnecessarily, they walked in plain view up to the entrance. However, the guards thought differently. They opened fire with small arms. These were absorbed by the armor of the troopers. The heavies dispatched the guards with ease. The troopers rushed the building, threw flashbangs in, and breached the building. They shot all the guards they saw, then moved deeper into the building, toward Jason, Lisa, the Boss, and Andre.

Sorel sighed.

"I saw the explosion and thought it wise to investigate. I do not know who atacked you."

He shifted his weight slightly, and unfurled his wings.

Jarvis instantly sprung active when he saw the attacking squad- Jamison's squad.

The Plasma cannon mounted on his arm fizzled as a green coherent beam spat out of the barrel. He dodged a round and swept through the squad. On his other arm, he discharged laser after laser at the advancing squad. He downed three as the plasma beam ate through their armor, and then two more as the laser cannon overloaded protective systems. But there were more. His plasma beam shut off as an energy overload prevented further firing, and he charged at the squad. Behind him, the others were just coming to their senses- Jason was scrambling for a weapon.

'WARNING- Missile Launched.' Jarvis dived to the side as a heavy missile flew past, smashing into the wall and exploding in a violent array of fire and metal. He grabbed one of the troopers and hurled it at the one who had fired the missile, smashing them both into the wall where they slumped, unmoving.

At this point, the others took the hint. They retreated as Jarvis continued to fire plasma and laser rounds into the crowd, taking out what he could. As the weapons stopped, he ran a damage analysis- Chest armor nearly completely compromised, arm servos overloaded, sensor plasma burns. 'Armor will require complete replacement.'

He paused as the other's just began to enter the room. In a grating mechanical voice, he boomed his announcement.

"Threat neutralized."

OOC: Oh yes I know its bull I just testing the waters to see how far I can go with it. You let me have a APC.

BIC: Jack's head whipped toward the sounds of gunshots. Have they come for me? He thought.

The sound of distant gunshots and an explosion reverberated off of the corrugated steel door of the warehouse. Aarvina checked her watch, still a few minutes until the meeting was scheduled. She had sent Richards the location of the warehouse a while ago, but there'd been no sign of him. She silently glanced over the side of the catwalk on which she had made her perch. The new clients had filed into the warehouse some time ago, three draped in heavy, maroon robes, about five in lighter grey or white robes that were belted at several points at the waist. She easily recognized the gold designs on the hems and collars: the signs of the Inquisition. They stood, silent and unmoving, the grey-robed guards in formation around the three in maroon. Odd that the officials of the Church would seek the assistance of one they considered heathen. Most likely a ruse.

She scraped the tip of one of her larger knives against a rusted portion of the grating, etching out a small design that she had often used as her signature during assignments. Reaching into her pack, she extracted her communicator and typed another message to White Shadow, telling him to use a discreet entrance and to not make himself known. She pulled a small briefcase out of the pack, opened it, and assembled a compact, small-caliber rifle. She looked again at her watch. Time. She stood on the catwalk and made sure that her ceramic knives were well enough hidden on her person, her pack well enough hidden against the shadows.

Her dark figure fell from the catwalk, she landed, crouched, on her feet in front of the formation of church officials. She could see no evidence of surprise on their hooded forms as she walked closer to them. Standing in front of the centermost of the maroon-robed individuals, she awaited a briefing.

"Child. You're wondering why we of the Holy Path seek your... Skills." The priest spoke with a curious accent, emphasizing the 'S' as if he was hissing at her at every instance.

Aarvina waited in silence.

He wavered slightly on his feet, the only example of humanity that she saw since they entered the warehouse. "There are those in the church that wish gain for themselves, monetary or otherwise. This cannot be permitted, as I'm sure you realize. We require assistance to wash clean our Path and continue with our righteous endeavor. However, we may never have on our hands the blood of those who are still Holy."

She took a sideways glance at one of the white-robed guards, of which there were two standing in the front of the five-guard protective formation. From this angle, it was obvious that they had a hunch in their back, though it looked as though they stood straight. Angels? A pair of wings couldn't have fit under the tightly-belted robe...

He continued to hiss the explanation at her, "Even one that is... stained as you are can help us in our quest."

Another one of the Priests spoke, this one with the same hissing accent. "We've selected you from the others on the market because of your past achievements. You successfully brought down one of the blasphemous corporations nearly single-handedly. Thus we grant you a certain amnesty."

The center Priest spoke again "We offer you this contract, if you successfully follow through with all of the assignments, we will reward you graciously."

"What, exactly, would my contract include?"

The center priest began, "The assassination of several high-ranking members of the Church--"

"'Several?'"

"There could be as many as fifteen. You will receive orders as you progress." The middle Priest hissed.

"And if I don't accept the contract?" Aarvina said.

The third Priest, who had remained silent until now, spoke in a low voice. "The information that my colleagues have given you must remain secure. The Church mustn't show any cracks. We assure you, though, that your reward, should you complete this mission, is larger than any that you would receive from exploitation of this information. However, as all hired assistance, you are, of course, expendable."

She noticed the three grey-robed guards slowly step forward, towards her. The white-robed guards lifted their hands.

"Will you accept?"

Aarvina continued her pause, thinking of the times that she had been targeted by the Inquisition. The guards in white slowly cast back their hoods. The gold-trimmed white robes fell past their shoulders, exposing a harness from which two long, slender swords hung on their back. Their faces were obscured with a featureless mask. The burned, scarred, and marked flesh below their necks was exposed between the buckles of the harness. From their shoulders protruded two tattered, scarred, fleshy nubs.

Fallen Angels.

These were no normal Church officials.

Undoubtedly, she had been meant to either accept the contract or die. Two things that she had no intention to do. She never accepted a contract under threat, even one that offered reward from killing Inquisitors. "You may have to seek assistance elsewhere." She opened her black jacket, exposing two 40cm ceramic blades and numerous throwing knives.

The Priests backed away, she threw one knife. It struck the third Priest in the chest, but was stopped by his heavy robe. The two Fallen Angels advanced with their swords drawn. Aarvina hoped that Richards had gotten her message.

OOC: These are from a splinter cell of the Church. Fallen Angles are those that have been cast out, their skin branded with the marks of excommunication, their wings forcibly pulled from their bodies, and the portion of their brain that permits psi abilities destroyed.

E: Yay sketch!

Spoiler:

OOC: @Mercury I assume they've been exiled by the Church, given that Angels are peaceful by nature. They don't tear wings off, for one.

Also, may be adding some sort of rough skill tree thing soon.

Fleet Admiral Error wrote:

OOC: @Mercury I assume they've been exiled by the Church, given that Angels are peaceful by nature. They don't tear wings off, for one.

Also, may be adding some sort of rough skill tree thing soon.

OOC: Fallen Angels are those that have committed some great atrocity against the Church, excommunicated and marked. The cult that these are from is very small and discreet, they want the members of the Church assassinated so that they can implant their own in the Order and gain power.

MercurySteam wrote:

Fleet Admiral Error wrote:

OOC: @Mercury I assume they've been exiled by the Church, given that Angels are peaceful by nature. They don't tear wings off, for one.

Also, may be adding some sort of rough skill tree thing soon.

OOC: Fallen Angels are those that have committed some great atrocity against the Church, excommunicated and marked. The cult that these are from is very small and discreet, they want the members of the Church assassinated so that they can implant their own in the Order and gain power.

Aight, cool. well, sorta.

With his in-arm lasergun extended, Jason slowly raised from cover. Everything was a complete mess.
Holding Jack's new leg in his non-cybernetic arm, Jason walked down to the bar. He saw Kenji hiding behind a flipped-over table.
"How the fuck are all these strangers getting in here? Are the guards drunk?" Kenji asked, slightly frightened.
"Are the guards ever not drunk?" Jason responded.
"Anyways I finished the leg, let's go fix that guy up and let the boosters clean up in this mess. We're techies, not janitors."
"So those plasma shots, I'm assuming the robot?"
"Yep. It's pretty damaged though, we better fix that once the surgery's over."

They then found Jake and brought him to the surgery table.
The surgery process was rather boring. Jake was put to sleep and the mechanical leg was attached.
Jake woke up after about 30 minutes.
"Glad to see you're awake." Jason said, in a rather indifferent tone.
"Hope you'll like your new leg" Kenji said. "We put most of the structure in the outer parts and added a hallow center, so you can hide stuff in it if you need to. Also the servo engines we used are rather powerful, so I'm guessing you can kick down some walls."
"Now, I hope you didn't expect to just walk into a booster gang HQ and get a free implant" Jason interrupted.
"We accept pretty much any sort of payment. Booze, ammo, cash, whatever."
"He's right, we are very open about payment. In fact," Kenji said with a rather unpleasant smile, "If you can't pay we completely understand and pay you instead. In live rounds."

Of course mike knew how to shoot, he could shoot with anything from a home-made cylinder shooting metal balls to a full-fledged sniper rifle, however now that he was sitting behind a crate looking at his pistol, shooting from that range with one hand seemed harder than he anticipated, sneaking in was easier, and that he did with only one leg ...

With a pray on his lips he pointed the pistol and pulled the trigger. This day really broke his anticipations as instead of cracking a skull open the bullet went straight past the hooded men and crashed into something else, a power box. In a flash the whole place went dark. Aarvina quickly used the distraction to dodge out of the way and run straight past the confused fallen angels. Mike decided not to test his running skills and jumped back into the crate he hided in.

The confused hooded men ran towards the door of the warehouse, taking a quick look around, "SHE RAN THIS WAY !" one said (standing right by mike's crate)  and they both ran out of the warehouse. Mike slowly lifted the lead to see if the place was empty, then jumped out of the crate and went the other way.

"Mike where are you ?" he heard over the comm "going as far as I can from you" "Running away huh ?" "Walking, taking it easy, and you by the way quit talking, it breaks your running rhythm" "Funny, anyway quick thinking there, these things have tough robes, good distraction" "yea ... it all went as I planned ..." he replied "Also where were you hiding ? I couldn't see you anywhere ? " "Just got a bit closer, hold on !"

This day really broke his anticipations , it seemed like instead of running away from her Mike was actually going towards Aarvina, judging by the two hooded men standing in front of him. "Eh ... good evening ... sirs ? Don't mind me Im just a homeless veteran of war" (He was too young to be a veteran of war). The hooded men looked at him then looked at each other, probably confused as hell as to why this place was not desolate but the missing limbs probably convinced them he was no threat "Have you seen a woman running past here ?" he quickly thought then replied "Yes she went this way" he pointed the way he came, after all if he was going towards her she's probably not the way he came. The fallen angels didn’t think for long and ran there, straight towards the warehouse.

Mike decided not to stick around to see how their search turns out and kept going. Suddenly he heard a noise behind him. "I thought you were running away from me" "So did I ... anyway guess no money here huh ?" "I think they will be searching for us now that we know what they want" "Searching for YOU, I'm just a homeless veteran" he said with a satisfied smile "Anyway if you need a place to hide I have an apartment down in the lower city"

MercurySteam wrote:

Fleet Admiral Error wrote:

OOC: @Mercury I assume they've been exiled by the Church, given that Angels are peaceful by nature. They don't tear wings off, for one.

Also, may be adding some sort of rough skill tree thing soon.

OOC: Fallen Angels are those that have committed some great atrocity against the Church, excommunicated and marked. The cult that these are from is very small and discreet, they want the members of the Church assassinated so that they can implant their own in the Order and gain power.

Most angels dont work with the church,however the ones that work with it and fuck everything up are turned into fallen angels.

Now put aarvina in the Avenger creed,so we can work together

Jack looked at the two, blinked, and then recovered himself. So many answers. He had to chose one. Standing up and motioning for them to get closer.

"You know you really shouldn't have so many hard surfaces near me when you are threating me." He said as he knocked their heads against a table, knocking them both out. "Robot you might want to run."

Leaving quickly he headed toward a safehouse of his.

OOC: Oh it says in the OP that Angels don't work with the church, but it would make sense for them to...  @Error: Skill tree? @LS: Aarvina is pretty anti-Inquisition, but the next few parts will probably be killing demented cultists, so they'll probably meet somewhere along the way.

BIC:

Aarvina chewed her tongue and shook her head. "Still business to be done." She took a quick glance down, examining his condition. "You look like you just came from repo. Here, hold this." She sheathed her knives and removed her jacket, then tossed it at him. "I'll send you the address of my techie, he can hook you up with some spare parts. I'll meet you at his den." Straightening her shirt under the harnesses, she turned and ran back toward the warehouse.

There was one of the grey-robed guards standing near a doorway. He wore his hood half-drawn, it was agitated by the movements of his head. Aarvina watched behind the corner of the building until he looked the other way, then crossed the ten meters to the guard. She slipped her right hand onto the grip of one of her knives and drew it from the harness. Her footsteps alerted the guard. He turned to inspect the sound, then frantically reached into his robe for a weapon. As he drew it, Aarvina grabbed his wrist and forced his arm to the side, rotating his wrist so that his hand opened, dropping the weapon. She slipped her ceramic blade into his abdomen, up under his ribcage and into his heart, careful not to get too much blood on the robe. He died in silence as she withdrew her blade. She removed the robe from the corpse and threw it over herself, then picked his weapon up from the ground. A high-velocity air pistol loaded with nonlethal rubber bullets. They either wanted her alive or this was a rather inept guard. Not the most effective for her plan, but useful, perhaps.

She placed the gun into one of the unoccupied pockets of her harness and entered the building. It was still dark, but her vision was enhanced with her cybernetic eye. There were several other grey-robed guards, searching for her in the warehouse, and two Fallen Angels. The Fallen Angels were conversing quietly near the center of the room. One spoke in a language that Aarvina didn't understand, the other one used hand gestures, undoubtedly mute. Apparently none of them had thought to look on the catwalks, as she saw that her bag's hiding place was undisturbed. Some of them turned to look, but didn't pay any mind to her. She climbed a ladder to the catwalk and stepped along it to her pack and the rifle that sat on the metal grating. She removed a hand grenade from the pack and placed it in her pocket, then slipped the strap of the compact rifle over one of her shoulders and her pack over the other. One of the grey-robed underlings shouted up to her.

"Brother. What are you doing?"

She didn't answer, instead she began to climb down the ladder.

"What is that? You found it on the suspension? Brother?" Another one said. More were beginning to notice Aarvina.

When she reached the floor, four of the grey-robes stood around her. She paused, then slowly began to walk. They looked at each other, one of them made a motion toward the inside of his robe. Aarvina slid the heavy bag off of her shoulder and pitched it into the man before he could draw his weapon. In the same motion, she drew the air pistol from her robe and fired three shots into the face of another of the grey-robes. As they fell, she slid the rifle from her shoulder and held it by the grip. The other two were drawing their weapons. She squeezed off four shots from the rifle, two of the rounds implanted themselves into the neck and chest of one of them. The other was able to fire at her. The bullet hit the receiver of her rifle, effectively destroying the weapon. She grabbed the rifle by the end of the barrel with her mechanical hand and swung the butt into the man's hooded head.

Luckily, the Angels were still conversing in the center of the room when the scuffle was initiated, they had just now drawn their swords. Aarvina reached into her pocket and withdrew the grenade, pulled the pin, and dropped the device in the midst of the four greys. She quickly picked up her pack and shouldered it. The Fallen Angels continued to advance on her. She drew a knife with her flesh-and-bone hand and thrust it forward into the path one of the Angels' descending blades. She scrambled backwards toward the door, nearly dodged the other blade, but the sword caught her on the shoulder. She saw the second Fallen Angel take cover behind a crate, the first was still engaging. She parried a few more blows with her metal arm and knife, then turned and ran through the door. There was just enough distance between her and the Angel for her to shut the door. She counted the last second on the fuse of the grenade as she slowed to a walking pace. The grenade detonated with a muffled bang.

There was at least one of the Fallen Angels still alive, the one that had hidden behind the crate. She sped to a jog and snaked her way between the buildings, hopefully losing any pursuers.

OOC: Sorry about the long posts...