Angel turns the barrel of his own gun to cover Swims and Luis as they effect some quick field repairs on the abandoned truck, his voice quiet - always a bad sign.

"I've got them Captain."

Depressing the trigger, and for the most part dispensing with the notion of precision, Angel starts covering Luis and Swims, with the aim of encouraging anyone not immediately dead to keep their heads down and live to fight another day.

Hunter's inside the trailing vehicle, with decidedly less than full vision. Given that, he decides he can best help by keeping an eye out for attacks from the rear quarters, unlikely as they might seem. Ambushes are, after all, meant to seem unlikely, he thinks. No reason to spaz out in one direction only.

"I've got an eye on our six. Feel free to engage."

Zaef stacks up by the door, but makes no move to leave.
"Staying with the convoy in case of further attack."

(Initiative:
Luis: 2d8.hi = 7
Swims: 1d10 = 7; 1d8 = 4
Insurgents: 1d6 = 1)

The semi-truck's diesel engine roars and belches a plume of black smoke as it rumbles down the road. Even as a low mud wall is blasted into dust by the truck's advance, the insurgents simply stand in the road firing their AK-47s blindly at the rear of the cab. Luis simply keeps his head down and his foot to the floor - and then feels a burst of bumps as screams sound out from underneath the truck.

(Fucking up your initiative like that = you get run over.
Insurgents: Roll 1: 6d6: 6d6(5,2,1,3,5,6)
Truck: Roll 1: 2d12.hi: 2d12.hi = 9 / 2d12.hi = 11 / 2d12.hi = 5 / 2d12.hi = 5 / 2d12.hi = 10 / 2d12.hi = 10)
Final score: 2 fucked up bad guys, 4 squished ones.)

Skulls crush like glass ornaments under combat boots as torsos are rendered into red smears on the dirt road. Turns out, semi trucks are pretty effective at killing people they run over.

(Swims-the-Black fires a 10 round burst to finish off the last two.
Swims: 2d8.low = 3; 1d10 = 6 / 2d8.low = 3; 1d10 = 8
Difficulty: 1d8 = 5 / 1d8 = 5
Forgoing damage since they're getting hit with 5 7.62mm rounds each. They're dead.)

Two of the insurgents roll over, screaming in pain from broken limbs - but still try to level their assault rifles at Luis. Swims-the-Black simply grunts and flashes orange in annoyance - then stands up and rips off a ten round burst into the pile of insurgents. Big 7.62mm rounds rip through the bodies, both dead and alive, turning those that are still the latter very much into the former.

And now the shouts are coming from everywhere - as are the rounds. The CLUNK and crack from bullets alternately hitting and missing the armored MRAPs sounds from all directions - but that's not what makes Hug'sh's fur stand on end, Angel's knuckles turn white on his M2 and Hunter's heart skip a beat. Seemingly from everywhere at once, insurgents with RPG-7s join their buddies - Angel counts three, Hug'sh five and Hunter five more.
"That looks like an anti-armor weapon!" Hale calls out from the rear MRAP as he kicks the door open and jumps out. "Five, from the rear! Engaging!"

Hug'sh's fur turns blazing red as he swings his M2 on target.

"Engaging!" he bellows, and it's almost louder than the fifty cal automatic. Almost.

edited by punkey on 2015-02-08 15:02:55

"Engaging."

Zaef jumps out of the MRAP, slams the door and shuts it. Then he dashes for some close cover and fires at the nearest man carrying an antitank weapon.

"Coming back!" Luis shouts. "Cover me." He waits a moment, kicks the truck door open, and runs for the MRAPs.

"I have you covered!" Swims-the-Black barks in return, and lays down a long suppressing burst down the street as he backs up towards Luis.

Further back, Hale and Zaef take cover on alternate sides of the street as gunmen armed with rifles hustle out into view to cover their compatriots with RPGs. "This is more like what I was expecting!" Hale shouts to Zaef, then squeezes a shot off.

"Home Base, this is Rocky 1-1, we have encountered heavy enemy resistance!" Arketta calls over her vox as she kicks the rear door of her MRAP open. "Multiple hostiles with anti-armor rockets and Narsai'i weapons are closing on the convoy, requesting close air support to my coordinates!" Ngawai taps Arketta on the shoulder as she turns back-to-back with her, and the pair move as one.
"Copy, Rocky 1-1," Home Base replies. "Close air support is unavailable right now, recommend you continue towards objective with all due haste. Sheen aerial shells will be retasked as soon as they become available."
"Copy, Home Base," Arketta replies, and brings the team channel back to the front with a flick of her thumb. "We're on our own for now! Protect the cogitators and equipment and clear the area so we can move out!"

(More to come later on, just wanted to give a quick update)

(Swims Suppress: 1d8 = 6; 1d10 = 9
Insurgents Will: 1d8 = 6

Insurgents are suppressed! 1d10 difficulty added.

Luis moves 20 feet - 20 feet more to the MRAP.

Angel Shoot (2 targets): 2d12.low = 5; 1d10 = 6
Difficulty + d6 cover: 2d6.hi = 5) / 2d6.hi = 6)

Swims-the-Black's M240L blasts a dozen rounds off its belt as he rakes the street with gunfire, sending the insurgents charging down it scattering behind buildings for cover. Luis takes the opportunity to leg it back towards the MRAP, with Swims now the furthest from the vehicle and safety. Angel keeps his eyes on the prize - particularly the prizes wielding the RPG-7s. One of them has taken cover with his buddy behind a not-very-sturdy-looking building corner, and he pops off a short burst from the M2 their way. One of the pair screams and spins into the street as the .50 BMG round takes his arm clean off while the other hits the dirt - but a quick glance at the severed arm and the AK-47 in its hand tells Angel he killed the wrong one.

(more to come)

(Arketta Shoot (2x): 1d12 = 5; 1d8 = 4, 1d12 = 9; 1d8 = 2
Difficulty: 1d8 = 6, 1d8 = 2

Ngawai Shoot (2x): 2d10.hi = 10, 2d10.hi = 9
Difficulty: 1d8 = 5, 1d8 = 6

Hug'sh Shoot (2 targets, 10 rounds each): 1d10 = 10; 1d10 = 10, 1d10 = 6; 1d10 = 6
Difficulty: 1d8 = 1, 1d8 = 2

Insurgents: 1d6 = 4, 1d6 = 5, 1d6 = 6
Difficulty: 1d8 = 6, 1d8 = 71d10 = 5

Hug'sh hit! Damage: 1d8 = 3)

Arketta and Ngawai advance down the road back-to-back, stepping in perfect practiced synchrony. Imperial tactics training emphasizes trins and pairs fighting against much greater numbers of lesser-equipped foes, and these two women are masters of the art.

A three-story building to the right of the convoy seems to be the primary source of the threat, the windows bristling with barrels and the RPG-wielding insurgents either on its balconies or hustling towards it for cover, and Arketta and Ngawai head straight for it. "Three story building has a lot of bad guys in it," Arketta calls over the vox. "Heading to clear now." She draws a bead on one of the RPG shooters on the nearest balcony, but the shot splashes against a railing and sends the shooter inside. "Fuck," Arketta curses under her breath.
Ngawai spots a man-sized blur silhouetted against the lighter-toned buildings, spins and fires a snap-shot that lands dead on target. The man's head splatters against the wall behind him - shortly followed by the rest of him as nerve impulses shoot the RPG in his hands into the ground at his feet. She wastes no time in surprise - another insurgent, this time with an RPK, runs out of a building just in time to catch a beam to the chest that knocks him right back inside the door he came out of. Arketta, not to be outdone, has waited for the owner of the RPG she scared inside to show his head again. He finally makes a move towards the door, but only sticks the point of his RPG out into the open. Not to leave an opportunity like that unused, Arketta simply shoots the warhead with a beam, and the round detonates with a BOOM, taking out the balcony, the shooter, and a good chunk of wall.
"Closing on the building," Arketta says over the team channel, just in time for the occupants to start to express their displeasure with a barrage of rifle fire. Arketta and Ngawai scatter to cover. "Could use some cover!" Arketta adds, her beamer's reports telling Ngawai that she has her bounding covered.

Hug'sh simply barks an affirmative back, and lets rip against the building with his M2. The second floor, source of most of the gunfire, gets a deliberate strafing. The big rounds cut a couple men down outright, including one more RPG shooter. But all that fire redirects the insurgents' attention his way - the barrage of gunfire from the building shifts focus his way. Hug'sh tries to rotate the turret to cover, but not quickly enough. A red-hot stab penetrates his right bicep, splattering a streak of red on the panel behind him.

(Zaef Shoot: 1d6 = 1; 1d8 = 5
Difficulty: 1d8 = 3

Hunter Shoot (4 targets, 20 rounds): 1d8 = 8, 1d8 = 3, 1d8 = 1, 1d8 = 4
Difficulty: 1d8 = 3, 1d8 = 2, 1d8 = 2, 1d8 = 1)

Hale Shoot (2x): 1d8 = 4; 1d8 = 1, 1d8 = 1; 1d8 = 3
Difficulty: 1d8 = 1, 1d8 = 6

Insurgents: 1d6 = 2, 1d6 = 3, 1d6 = 6
Difficulty: 1d8 = 7, 1d10 = 4, 1d8 = 1

Hale Hit! Damage: 1d8 = 6)

Zaef hops out of the MRAP and chases Hale down as the ex-Turai charges ahead, beamer raised. His first shot is sloppy - unfamiliarity with the XM-10 and his new armor - but it does the trick, downing an AK-47 wielding baddie as he charges ahead. Zaef follows it up with a good shot that fells the now-dead insurgent's buddy before he can blow Hale or the MRAP up with his RPG. Hale whoops with excitement and fires another shot, but the beam goes wide.

Hunter is pretty damn comfortable behind his M2, and lets loose with a long burst on the group of insurgents congregating on a nearby rooftop. One, two, three insurgents drop, two with RPGs, but the third RPG-wielding insurgent dives for cover just in time.

"Hostiles heading for cover! Zaef, get my back!" Hale calls as he rushes forward. Zaef tries to keep up, but Hale's got too much of a lead on him. He sees Hale turn around a corner, and then a staccato of gunfire makes Zaef's stomach drop. Hale quickly turns back around the corner, his Turai carapace marked by a half-dozen bullet impacts and blood running from a few bullet frag wounds. "Hah! What a rush!" Hale says to Zaef, his eyes wild.

Hug'sh barely finds the time to flinch from the hit, the only real acknowledgement of it being a deep grunt. Well, tick off another item on the checklist - first bullet taken with his new body, so that's the end of that honeymoon. All in all, it still feels a damn lot like every other grazing shot he's taken in his life, and boy howdy has he taken a lot of those. This is gonna suck later, but right now he's some brass to deliver downrange and one measly bullet wound won't keep him.

"Get some!" Hug'sh barks over the comms between suppressive bursts into the side of the building.

"No more running ahead, Hale," Zaef growls as he forms up next to the wounded ex-Turai. He jerks his head towards the corner Hale just returned from and asks"How many? Cover?"

Luis legs it for the MRAPs as Swims blasts into the insurgents behind him. There's an explosion from where he thought he saw Arketta, but in the middle of a firefight he can't be sure, and besides, it's hardly the place to be thinking about it. Head down, don't get shot, get to the convoy, worry about it there.

Suffice it to say that Hunter is exceedingly frustrated with Hale's antics, but doesn't have a lot of time to deliver lectures on disciplined advances. He's in his element, pouring fire down in such volume that it feels more like a wave of force than individual shots. And his waves are flowing freely today.

"Zaef, try to keep our field observer from getting his damnfool head shot off! Cleared some of the cluster on the roof, trying for the last one. Let me know if you need some covering fire."

(Luis makes it to the MRAP.

Swims runs towards the MRAP - 10 feet away now.

Angel suppresses: 1d12 = 7; 1d10 = 8
Insurgent Will: 1d8 = 3

Insurgents suppressed! 1d12 difficulty added.

Insurgents Shoot: 1d6 = 5, 1d6 = 2, 1d6 = 2
Difficulty: 1d8 = 2; 1d12 = 7, 1d8 = 8; 1d12 = 8, 1d8 = 2; 1d12 = 1)

Luis doesn't take his eyes off of the MRAP idling at the end of the block as he runs, hood swinging from side to side as his carapace's boots carry him back to the vehicle. He slams against it with a clank just in time to see Swims-the-Black pounding the dirt as fast as he can towards him. He's about 30 feet behind Luis, looking more like a furry red brick wall hurtling towards him than anything else. Swims doesn't look back, which means only Luis and Angel see the half-dozen insurgents run out of a side alley and level their weapons at Swims-the-Black - including an RPG-7. Luis only has time to shout, "Swims! RPG at your six!" before Angel opens up on the group with the big .50. He doesn't have time to aim, only time to throw lead downrange in the hope of keeping Swims in one piece. The heavy machine gun spits fire and lead, the bullets kicking up a stinging shower of dirt and lead fragments that send the insurgents diving for cover once more, blind-firing their AKs as they run for cover. The RPG shooter stands his ground, though, but as he pulls the trigger, a .50 round impacts the building right next to him, spraying him in the face with spalled brick and bullet fragments. He jerks away as the RPG blasts out of the launcher, and the rocket screams just past Swims-the-Black and blows a Swims-sized hole in the building next to the MRAP.

(New initiative for Arketta, Ngawai and Insurgents!
Arketta: 2d8.hi = 3
Ngawai: 2d8.hi = 6; 1d10 = 1
Insurgents: 1d6 = 2

Ngawai (2x): 2d10.hi = 9, 2d10.hi = 10
Difficulty: 1d6 = 1, 1d6 = 4

Arketta (2x): 1d12 = 8; 1d8 = 5, 1d12 = 3; 1d8 = 5
Difficulty: 1d6 = 4, 1d6 = 1

Insurgents: 1d6 = 2, 1d6 = 2
Difficulty: 1d6 = 6, 1d6 = 1

Arketta hit! 1d8 = 3 - 1d6 = 2 = 1 Shock)

Hug'sh suppresses: 2d10.hi = 6
Insurgent Will: 1d8 = 7

Suppression fails!

Insurgents attack: 1d6 = 4, 1d6 = 4
Difficulty: 1d10 = 10, 1d10 = 9)

Ngawai hits the building first, her carapace kicking up a puff of dust as she hits the wall and takes aim at the door. Arketta slides right in behind her, and after taps are exchanged, does a quick visual check for any booby traps, then kicks the door. The alloy of her boots and her forceful kick fling the door wide open - and dent it in slightly - giving Ngawai clear entry into the building. She hustles through the threshold, beamer leading the way into what could have been the foyer of the building once upon a time, with stairs leading up and a hallway leading back into the building. Two insurgents stand up behind cover at the other end of the room; Ngawai dispatches both of them with two quick whaps of particle fire. Arketta is right behind her, intercepting the three man reinforcement team thundering down the steps with three quick beams of her own.

The pair shuffle over to the stairs and start to climb. As they near the top of the first flight, Arketta already has a flashbang in her hand, pin already twisted and ready to pull. Ngawai stages once more, and Arketta hooks the pin on her carapace, yanking it free with a jerk and tossing the grenade into the hallway. Ngawai's helm clicks shut as Arketta pops up her hood, both serving to muffle the concussive blast of the flashbang as it goes off down the hall. Ngawai and Arketta both swing their beamers around the corner, but neither one actually follows the grenade - instead, they simply point their beamer shrouds down the hallway and wait. A few seconds later, nearly a dozen insurgents stream out from a half-dozen different doors, and the two women cut them all down in turn. One of the last ones manages to get off a long burst of AK-47 fire, one of the rounds striking Arketta in the shoulder. Ngawai just sees the impact spin her around before cutting the offending insurgent down with a double-tap, but by the time she looks back, Arketta's already back at the other side of the entryway.
"That's gonna leave a good-looking bruise," Arketta jokes with a smirk.
"Wouldn't be as fun if no one got hurt," Ngawai replies, returning the smile.

Back outside, Hug'sh, having decided that he's both most valuable as a distraction and that he'd very much prefer not to get shot again, rips off a good length of belt raking the hardened building with fire. Bullets impact all around the hostiles, but they've got enough places to hide and dodge that they just take turns popping off shots in his direction. Fortunately, none of them can seem to shoot worth a damn, either, as the rounds just bounce off of the MRAP - and a couple RPGs either miss or wildcat off into the distance on past-expiration engines.

(Zaef Shoot: 1d6 = 3; 1d8 = 7
Difficulty: 1d6 = 6

Hale Shoot (2x): 1d8 = 6; 1d8 = 4, 1d8 = 4; 1d8 = 7
Difficulty: 1d6 = 3, 1d6 = 1

Hunter (2 targets, 10 rounds): 2d8.hi = 8, 2d8.hi = 3
Difficulty: 1d8 = 8, 1d8 = 8

Insurgents: 1d6 = 1, 1d6 = 5
Difficulty: 1d8 = 8 Critical Failure!)

Hale flips his helm down with a nod. "Five hostiles, behind cover!" he replies as he angles his beamer around the corner, aiming through the weapon's feed to his helm. A whap later, he quickly withdraws the beamer before a barrage of rifle fire shoots it out of his hand. "Four now!" The smooth chrome surface of his helm turns Zaef's direction. "You want to run your play, I'll follow."

Zaef simply grunts a reply and steps out away from the wall before breaking into a flat sprint towards the fatal funnel. He lets his feet go out from underneath him as he slides across the dirt on his carapace, the smooth hard metal carrying him across to cover, bullet impacts playing out behind him as Hale pops out from cover once more to provide cover fire. Zaef sees Hale's careful shot burst an insurgent's head wide open as he comes up on a knee and delivers a shot of his own, downing another, while up above more gunfire sounds out, aimed at Hunter and the MRAP.

However, Hunter's good vibes get cut off very abruptly as the contingent on the roof starts to scatter for cover from the big .50, rather than obligingly standing around to be shot. One round bursts a cinder block right in front of an RPG gunner's head - but Hunter sees only the shocked look on the man's face before he ducks further behind cover, completely unscathed. He has just enough time to curse his rotten luck before the RPG gunner steps back out from behind cover, his rocket launcher pointed squarely at the MRAP. Hunter tenses up instinctively, bracing for the explosion - when the whole rooftop vanishes in a blast wave and a cloud of dust, raining debris, dust and bits of insurgent down on their buddies (and Hale and Zaef) below.

Hoooolyyyyyy shit, Hug'sh thinks as the battle around him grows ever louder and more violent. He gives the fifty a few seconds to cool - and his new special friends a chance to stick their heads out of cover.

"Arketta, we're still taking fire from your location, at least a dozen hostiles remaining on the top two floors," he voxes. "Counting about three RPGs, the rest are AKs. What's your status?"
"Lots of contact, still clearing the second floor!" Arketta replies, her sentence punctuated by beamer fire.
"Stay away from the west wall, about to resume fire," Hug'sh barks, then swivels the fifty to aim at the window with the bravest insurgent hiding beneath it.

Surrender already, Hug'sh thinks, but his finger squeezes the trigger nonetheless.

Luis reaches the MRAPs just in time to see one of the RPG-weilding insurgents try to ope up on Swims. He shouts a warning, and whether it helped or not, the blast goes wide...barely. He takes a knee and pulls his tenner, wishing idly for something with a faster rate of fire, and joins Angel on the big .50 cal in pushing fire downrange to cover Swims and the trucks, trying to pick aimed shots at the insurgents who brave the more general fire of the machine guns.