Clusterfrag

((One way or another, wounds have to be factored in to iniative rolls...using the rulebook system, if you lose an initiative die due to a wound modifier it would make sense to just roll that one die and subtract it from your score. A lot faster than refilling everyone's initiative every pass. Also, I was thinking now that combat has gotten bigger, it would be helpful if at the end of a post, whoever is acting puts the name of the next person up in the initiative order. That way I don't have to go back three pages everyone I check the action to see if it's my turn...))

Spinning gracefully in the air after rebounding off the fallen troll, Sinjin lands steadily on the balls of his feet. With a sharp inhalation of air, he springs forward to deliver a rapid hammer fist to another ganger before his opponent can reorient himself. A keening cry escapes his throat, unnoticed by the Adept as he focuses his physical energy into a deadly weapon.

(( Target: G#4, East... Initiative to: G4 West))

(( 11P DAMAGE! ))

Sinjin drives his fist into a human ganger's skull, crushing it and sending fragments into his brain. His victim drops, lifeless.

Ganger #4 from the West side returns fire at Doc. A stray round ricochets off the Rover's bullet-proof hood and singes Doc's collar. Doc ducks behind the rover as another burst of gunfire rattles against it.

Ganger #5 fires on Val's position. Val feels a round of buck tear through the edge of his lined coat, but no injury occurs. Another cluster 'o birdshot sails over Val's head.

(( Tyros is next! ))

From his vantage point hovering above city hall, Tyros watches the bullets fly at both the east and west entrances, as gangers fall quickly. He notes with some satisfaction, and interest, the Orc Mage's death at Max's hands despite invisibility. Always good to note flaws in one's own defenses lest one become too reliant on them.

Seeing three gangers still standing on the west side, Tyros uses his levitation to angle his decent towards ganger #3 before releasing the spell about 10 feet from his head and letting gravity do the rest. Using the momentum of the fall combined with the swing of his claymore, Tyros slashes diagonally at the ganger's right shoulder blade in a move that has every intention of cleaving the unfortunate soul in half.

((steel lynx up!))

(( 11P DAMAGE! ))

Tyros cleaves the ganger in 'twain, grimacing as a fountain of gore erupts on him.

The Steel Lynx turns on Ganger #3 on the Eastern side and unleashes hell.
A shower of sparks erupts from the firing mechanism as the little drone jams!

Max peers out the window and sees the lynx explode its shower of sparks and shouts,

"WHOEVER BOUGHT THAT FRAGGIN' THING IS UP FOR REVIEW!"

The General's masculine cry seems to carry above the battle noise.

"SEVEN-SIX-TWO MILLIMETER! FULL METAL JACKET!"

The end of the Ingram springs to life as it spits out a full auto spread.
The car that the gangers are hiding behind rocks as it is hit by round after round of machine-gun fire.

Max grumbles to himself as he sees the drones contribute exactly nothing of worth to the fracas,

"Gotta do everything myself..."

The elf brings his shotgun back around to the last remaining ganger on the east end of Cloud Nine's city hall. As he fires, he thinks how this might have been a nice place to live once upon a time.

The slug ricochets off of the side of city hall. (( 4P DAMAGE! ))

The troll ganger staggers as part of his left arm explodes, revealing muscle and torn flesh.

(( Next: Tyros. ))

Tyros pivots smoothly as the corpse he just created slides to the ground in two distinct pieces and takes a slash at the nearest, unwounded ganger.

(( 10P DAMAGE! ))

Tyros inflicts a meter-long gash, critically injuring the unfortunate ganger.

The Steel Lynx swivels to the ganger that Max wounded and fires.
(( 13P DAMAGE! ))

The ganger is sawed in half by the Lynx's machine gun.

"Drop on the ground and give me DEATH."

The General fires on one of the gangers behind the car.
The ganger remains unscathed, although the car is beginning to resemble something you'd find in a junk yard.

Doc fires another volley at the 4th ganger ((G4W))

The ganger ducks as Doc's burst takes off a side view mirror. (( 12P DAMAGE! ))

The ganger's head snaps back, his cranium having caught a bullet. His lifeless body makes no sound as it settles behind the car.

((Btw, wtf is The General? And why does it say the most idiotic things?))

Max is experiencing a bit of a combat high. The only battles he's experienced in his life that measure up to this one were the team's showdown with Deus and the siege of insect spirits they encountered in the desert, and this is the first in which he's maintained control of himself. The elf swings his shotgun to what appears to be the final ganger, cursing viciously over his previous two shots at the last that met his demise at the hands of the lynx. Sure-- the elf had hit the ganger once-- but only once-- and even then he hardly winged him. Max has no intention of only winging this one.

The armor piercing rounds clap as the slugs are propelled through Marlowe's muzzle, and the flare at its end would be enough to turn day into night.

(( 6P DAMAGE! ))

The human ganger on the front step lets out a cry as Max's slug buries itself in his thigh. (( 8P DAMAGE! ))

Max's victim stumbles backwards, gaping in astonishment at the hole in his stomach. He sinks forward with a groan and expires on city hall's stairs.

(( Combat is over! ))

Max peers over the scope on top of his shotgun and spies the scene tentatively. A shocking calm settles over the scene as the smoke creates swirls in the air; a dust devil spins to life in the middle of the intersection in front of city hall before vanishing back into the dry air. Not entirely trusting that the fight is over, Max gathers his grenades and puts them in his pack. 'I'm not too impressed with you,' he thinks as he loads the last grenade. The elf slings Marlowe over his right shoulder, noting with some annoyance the pain therein as the sling rubs against the minor wound that found its home there. Moving to the door he barricaded, Max kicks the chair wedged under the door out of its place and turns the knob. Before he opens the door fully to make his way downstairs and out to the street, he thinks to himself 'better safe than sorry.'

Redrawing his shotgun, Max heads out into the building. He makes his way through the apartment-- checking around corners in a more cursory than thorough fashion. The building outside this individual apartment is quiet. If there are people here, they're holed up inside their homes. Max makes his way to the street and rejoins the team.

Walking up to Doc, Max slaps the human on the shoulder and says,

"You know-- I do believe that's the first time we've ever had a team-inclusive plan come to fruition. The only other time I can think of something actually going our way was when we got Kato blown up, which strictly speaking didn't really go our way because he walked-- or swam-- away from that one."

Max pulls a cigarette from his pack and lights it, offering a smoke to any team member who may also want one.

"Check out what's left of city hall?"

Max begins moving up the steps to the main entrance of the husk of city hall. Careful not to poke his head in too hastily, Max peeks around the doorjamb to check for signs of hostiles.

Val glances sideways at Doc and tentatively peeks his head over the bullet-ridden husk of what was once an automobile. The silence of the moment is deafening. It's as if all the air in Cloud 9 has suddenly been spirited away, and now the whole place exists in nothing but vacuum. His eyes scan the eerily still landscape of carnage through a lethargic haze of shifting smoke and concrete dust. A few small fires burn here and there, their light shimmering and refracting off the sea of glass shards which carpets the street in front of city hall. The surreal and terrible beauty of the moment is something Val will never forget. For some strange reason, it seems inappropriate to break such a serene stillness with something so mundane as a spoken word. Val hopes the divine quiet will forgive him this transgression.

"Wow."

The adrenaline begins ebbing away, and Val silently accepts a cigarette from Max with a slightly shaking hand.

Doc nods numbly. The smoke gives the grisly scene the orange sheen of a sunset. The color cast on the ground subdues the blood that paints it. Doc listens for the sounds of the dying, but can only make out the occasional shift in the shattered concrete of the town hall.

He finally becomes aware of his teammates.

"Drek, Max, you got hit again? Lemme take a look at that."

He leans his rifle against the ruin of the car he and Val had hidden behind, and goes for yet another medkit.

(( 2P HEALED! ))

Doc barely finishes stitching the wound before Max pulls away to go investigate city hall.

Doc commands the flying drones to do another sweep of the city hall before putting his gear away.

"Careful, even if they're dead, the structure's probably unstable," he says, taking up a position on the other side of the door.

Max smiles and says,

"Lookit that-- couple pins in the hip and I'm good as new."

One last tenacious pane of glass finally gives out and pours shards across the entrance way. Both front doors are now empty steel skeletons. A small plume of smoke escape through the top and a few flickers of orange can be seen from the haze inside.

Max proceeds cautiously inside with his shotgun drawn and raised.

Doc follows slowly, trying to avoid the glass the covers the floor.

"Well, we certainly made a mess here." He says to Max, under his breath.