Event Escape from Mataou - Broken Steel

[Gett'se Vizsla]

Gett'se stepped and spun out of his duck to put his back into the corner to the right of the open portal. He pushed right into the suit that had opened the door as he put his back to the wall, not particularly taking care to be gentle as he shoved the unarmored man further into the corner and farther away from the lethal beam energy that carved through the open space.

They might definitely still need the Suit.

Taking a quick peak to see the result of the ragtag groups opening volley, adrenaline coursed through the warriors veins as he observed the left hand droid topple to the ground under the combined firepower of their explosives and blasters.

Good. That meant these metal monstrosities weren't unstoppable.

They also adjusted their tactics. Gett'se did not fail to observe the remaining guardian shuffling to cover before ducking his head back behind the slim cover as a beam of energy sliced at the reinforced frame of the blast door.

Pulling a concussion grenade from his belt, he primed it and held it for a second, burning the fuse.

"Flash!" He shouted as he twisted and flung the grenade like a skipping stone down the hallway towards the war droids cover. It wasn't organic, but it still relied on optical sensors that could be overloaded. Even if just for a split second, it might be the advantage he needed.

A deep breath and a silent mental prayer. Kad Ha'rangir guide my weapon. What he was about to do was crazy. But he was a mandalorian. By definition that meant he was crazy too.

Bang-Flashzzt!

The concussion grenade exploded with a dizzyingly bright light, noise, and concussive force. That was his cue.

His blaster led the way, firing as he left cover. Stepping forward into a diving roll, he flashed open his left hand, activating the energy buckler there. Coming out of the roll ducked behind the buckler, head bowed and bent behind the shield but turned so he could see the war robot, he now had a great angle on the beast.

And he lit it up, aiming swift and sure, firing as fast as the pistol would cycle.

Double tap to the closest knee, a shot at the hip, stitching two shots up to the chest before planting another double tap right in the death's head emblazoned on its chest. Two more blasts aimed right at the droids face for good measure before the pistol hit dry, its third cycle aimed for the droid's face whining on empty.

Staring down death, he wondered if this one would finally be his last fight.

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[Vizim]

With his tug having managed to keep the droids in place while the grenade rolled, Vizim was quite satisfied with the results. Another pair of beams lanced by over his head and he hoped for pragmatic reasons that it hadn’t struck any of his partners. Whether it had been aimed at him or not, he pushed off his crouched foot, more or less rolling to the side and out of the way of it or any follow up attacks. Rolling to his right ensured he would not cut himself with the saber in his right hand either.

The detonation forced him to wince as he came out of his roll. The flash of light tore across the room and ripped chunks free from one droid bringing it down.

The Mando’s warning was enough to help him look away from the flash grenade further down the hall. While the others started unloading on the remaining droid, Vizim gripped it with the Force to try to slow its run toward cover.

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[Allegra]

The left droid downed, she didn't stop there but followed suit. With the iron one's warning of a flash grenade, she turned her head to avoid the brunt of its' effects, before moving once more. She still had her second grenade, but she wouldn't use it unless absolutely necessary. Still, the left droid would be impacted once again by her blaster as she began moving to keep the other in line of sight. A bit hard when it was ducking away.

Still, the rest were moving, so she would follow their example, and kept her other grenade in her off hand in case the still-standing one decided to get any bright ideas.

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[Casany Praxor]

Spoiler: Music OOC [Recurring]

One droid down. One droid to go. Let’s go! Cas capitalized on the controlled chaos and did not delay in following her shots up with more shots, coughing bolts from her blaster after the explosion. If she had aimed true and had enough luck to barter with then she might have snagged the droid that was moving more than its friend given the immobile legs.

Cas did not have time to see the results as she swung herself back into cover to dodge the covering fire of her opponent. As her contemporaries maintained the assault, tossing another grenade before pressing forward, she was quick to note that one was a Forcie and the other an armored Mandalorian. Heck, just the two of them ought to be enough.

So the unarmored Mandalorian stayed put, whipping her rifle out from behind her position to unleash a barrage upon any droid still standing. The ranged fire would at least help keep the droid suppressed while the vanguard plowed forward to tear it apart.

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[Cyrene Nilar]

one down another to go, these droids weren't so tough under their heavy fire. she was about to change target as the mando shouted flash she closed her eyes and faced away from the grenade wait for the bang to back.

Reacquiring the rightmost droid, she would line up any exposed part of the droid, firing at the points with the least amount of armour hoping to punch through it and do damage.

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[/QUOTE]

 

[The Storyteller]

@Phoenix @christhebetrayer @Die Shize @Killa Ree @The Good Doctor @Arclight

Either the droids were a lot less reliable than the IG unit believed or one of the organics was using the Force. The Force was a very tricky thing to accommodate into calculations since only organics could use it. It seemed more likely than the droids suddenly having several malfunctions.

More in the realms of something that it could calculate, the grenade was more effective than IG-0R expected. Seemed that it's calculations were slightly off today - a mechanic might need to check it out leave it alone. The unit was working well enough to perform self-diagnostics.

Thankfully for IG-0R, the unit was less susceptible to the flash grenade than some of the rest of the group. Raising its borrowed blaster, it would fire another two shots at the one that was retreating, stepping forward to stand beside the Mandalorian Organic who had actually remembered to bring his armor.

IG-0R didn't mean to assist the Mandalorian overly much but if it assisted enough that the organic lived? It supposed it was incidental.

Z1MM ran a continuous diagnostic on its circuits as it watched the engagement on a live holocam feed, feeding continuous battle analysis and updated instructions to its final guardians. A diagnostic, because the ancient tactical computer simply could not credit what its sensors were showing it. Within moments, one of its guardians - veteran warriors who had stood their ground on a thousand shell-torn battlefields - was brought down by a hail of energy projectiles. The other turned and sprinted as fast as it could for cover.

Abruptly, though, the feed went white, and Z1MM desperately tried to degauss the sensors. By the time it managed to, the second droid was under fire, stumbling blindly, its own sensors overloaded as well, although it was far less able to clear them. The other droid was thoroughly decommissioned.

Z1MM would have given in to despair, had it been an organic commander. As it was, it rapidly ran through its options; with limited combat resources available, it realized that there was but one option left.

Outside, the hulking droid, stumbling but still upright, acknowledged a final command. Straightening, it extended its arms like cannon barrels, and began to plod forward, gathering speed until it achieved a running pace, charging straight at its attackers and firing every weapon it possessed. Its footfalls thundered metallically as it came on like a freight speeder.

Both it and Z1MM put long odds on the unit's survival, but the machine was proud to do its duty for the empire it had been built to serve...

 

[Vizim]

The droid still seemed to be able to manage its continued fire. It was blindly charging at the strike team, and Vizim knew it needed to be brought down quickly.

His hand smoothly drew his pistol and as it came up, he pulled back the hammer to convert the next shot into a heavy pistol shot. Hopefully it would pack enough punch to make it through the armor.

He squeezed the trigger and fired, placing a round at whatever looked to be the weakest point after the droid had taken so much damage thus far. His saber flashed out in his other hand and he watched carefully through the Force for any sign that one of the shots was coming toward him so that he could adjust himself accordingly.

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[Allegra]

At the droid charging head-on, she dipped to one knee, firing up at it towards the head, neck, and chest to aid in the others to take it down, unloading another steady trio of shots so that Mando, droid, and others would also get the chance to lay in heavier fire. The Sith also seemed to surprisingly carry heavier equipment, which was nice.

However, she wouldn't stay in one place if any of the bolts would come in her direction, pausing between shots in case she had to duck or maneuver away from the kamikaze droid.

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[Cyrene Nilar]

the droid was now charging them in some sort of suicidal attack, there was an end goal of this attack, she didn't know what it was but she was going to put an end to it before the droid could see it to fruition.

Moving her aim down, she would take aim at the knee joint of droid, firing at it until it was completely inoperable, that would slow it's charge without a duobt.

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[Newton]

"Ouch" the Blackwell Manager said and groaned a bit after the heavily armored Mandalorian shoved him out of his position for him to show-off. Rude and uncouth. Newton would get back up, it would take a bit or so as that actually did hurt when he hit the ground. They at least took down one of the droids. Heh. But something was wrong, would soon start hearing loud, thunderous metallic footsteps. That is not a good thing.

Newton would quickly then retreat behind the hatch closest to him when/if the last war robot came in the console room. He'd crouch down take cover around the corner inside of it. He will be safe from any of the droid's attack from this position.

If the droid manages to get into the console room, Newton would then step out of cover a bit and keep firing with his heavy blaster pistol at the droid. If the droid's weapons look like they are going to aim at him, he'd step back into cover out of line of sight.

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[Casany Praxor]

Spoiler: Music OOC [Recurring]

Good thing Cas had decided to hang back with anyone else or all by herself. At least she wouldn’t be knocked aside like bowling pins as much as her contemporaries might be as the remaining droid bulled forward like a...Mandalorian?

One weapon after the other cried across the corridor, a number of them the war droid’s own arsenal, and for her part Cas fired right back. She was furthest away so still had some aim until the barrage targeted her doorframe and she whipped away. An instant later and the Mandalorian who had been so impolitely kidnapped without her armor was back in action.

This time she trained her rifle from a crouch to dodge any other bolts while working in tandem with Catwoman to take out the droid’s legs. Cas figured that if two blasters could achieve what one grenade had then a lightsaber could finish the job if no one beat Mask to the punch.

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[Gett'se Vizsla]

Gett'se had been hoping to take the droid down completely before his heavy blaster ran out of charge. It seemed that wasn't to be the case though as the war robot stood upright once more and charged the corridor. Remaining in his low position next to IG, Gett'se dropped his empty pistol and grasped for the rifle slung over his shoulder. Bringing it to bear on the charging war robot, he fired blast after blast at it, aiming at the wounded knees in hopes of toppling the beast before it could crush him underfoot.

An beam hit the energy buckler that was still active, throwing his aim off for a moment before he adjusted for it and continued to fire.

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[The Gatekeeper]

@Phoenix @christhebetrayer @Die Shize @Killa Ree @The Good Doctor @Arclight​

IG-0R had to admit that the tactical utility of a forward charge was lost on it. That there was even such a utility was an assumption based on the unit's inherent belief that droid brains were superior to organic minds. With that in mind, it tried to accept that there was some secret genius behind the sudden charging motion but it was difficult.

There had to be something that it's own processors were not perceiving. Perhaps a holding action? That would make sense to IG-0R but the IG unit tried to waste no further energy on the line of thought as it instead dove jerked to its feet, blasting away at the enemy droid as it advanced.

Two blasts from the beam tube weapons would impact IG-0R within the region of it's self-destruct device. With such an incentive, IG-0R did not wish to save it's fellow droid any longer. The IG unit was far too important to a great many things in motion for it to be lost here.

Unloading the remainder of the blaster's clip into the advancing droid, IG-0R would drop the empty weapon to the ground.

"Mandalorian organic, you weapon is empty."

Z1MM watched through a distorted camera feed as its final guardian, a veteran of a thousand battles across a thousand worlds, charged forward in a desperate final defense of its master. Witnessing the fleeting moments of such a testament to Xim’s eternal empire and military might would have brought lesser, more organic commanders to their knees. Z1MM, however, merely watched impassively as its last option was quickly snuffed.

The droid continued to charge forward, spraying forth a gout of flame from its head flamethrower and repeated bolts from its many weapons, firing indiscriminately at the targets ahead. It was a long shot, indeed, and its foes concentrated the full force of their firepower on this last obstacle in their path.

Bolt after bolt hammered into the machine, many boring through its once-impervious armor plating. Even as it began to slow with the volley of incoming shots, it never ended its own flurry of attacks. Joints and other weaker points were penetrated by heavier firepower, sending sprays of sparks and spurts of molten slag away from the machine.

It continued to thunder forward, but it truly was outgunned and outdated. Within moments of sustained firepower from a numerically-superior force, the machine lunged forward and fell onto its knees, desperately attempting to drag its legs back up to stabilize itself. A monotonic whine buzzed out from its mouthpiece until, at last, it fell onto its face, shuddering and sparking violently in the aftermath.

Two droids, once formidable guardians of an immortal empire, now lay slagged and scrapped in the corridor. Small flames spurted out occasionally as they settled in their defeat, otherwise it was mostly silent once more. Z1MM continued to watch, to its great dismay, as these interlopers neared the final chamber.

Ahead loomed the great vault door, still sealed as it had been for centuries. The console to its side was darkened, a sign of either inactivity or lack of power.

 

[Vizim]

Vizim watched as the droid was pelted by fire, once more forced to reposition to avoid being shot by the charging droid's final desperate shots. After several more thunderous shots, sparks of energy, and crunching of metal, the droid finally fell down at their proverbial feet.

Both droids were now empty husks, but all Vizim could think was "if there's an army of these, we're in trouble." He swapped out energy packs for his pistol and stowed the partially empty one in his belt in case he needed it later. From the sound of things, others had used even more ammunition. They would barely be able to fight one more of these droids let alone an army.

There didn't seem to be anything standing between them and the console, but it was offline.

He started looking around the room for ways to power the console up or other threats that might be present unseen. He wasn't the most technical person, but he could secure the area while the others worked on getting this facility shut down. Could one use Force Lightning for that? He wasn't sure, but it seemed... possible. Not a great first choice, though.

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[Newton]

The last of the big droids are down. Good. With it's threat out of the way, Newton would grab the slicer equipment from the console they used before and stashed it on his person. Hopefully they are close to the end, because Newton is running on partial power packs at this point for his blaster.

One last console was there. As with before, Newton would go up to the console. It looks off line. He would push some buttons on it, seeing if that would do anything. If that fails, he too would look for clues as to how to restore the console's functionality. Maybe there's some wires that are disconnected or damaged. Maybe there is a switch or junction that is turned off or damaged itself as well.

Of course, Newton kept his blaster in hand, just in case any more hostiles show up.

If they find nothing, they may have to resort to the Sith's lightsaber to cut through the last door....

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[Casany Praxor]

Spoiler: Music OOC

Twisted trails of fire burst forth toward Cas; a desperate attempt to wreak havoc on the instruments of death when it came to a droid that was already without life. Still, Cas did not want to get burned alive or to death so she quickly rolled aside. By the time she evaded the flame that war droid was dropped to its knees; a ragdoll marionette whose point of existence had served its purpose and had now expired.

Cas rolled upright, training muzzle toward droid, but did not expend any more ammunition. She had woken up in this hell without her beskgar’gam, with only the weapons she carried with her even when asleep or in a drunken stupor, but what she had not brought with her for that same reason was an extra supply of power packs.

So, with both droids down, the Mandalorian slung the blaster rifle over her shoulder and withdrew the sword from her back, ready to plug it into a wayward war droid. It could cut and stab better than most, if not quite as well as a lightsaber.

That thought tethered to, Cas advanced toward the great vault door. Could one use Force Lightning for that? She wasn’t sure, but it seemed...possible. A great first choice or not, Corporate waltzed up in his needs-a-dry-cleaning-suit to play typey-typey with the console.

Well, Cas knew when she was out of her element, so she would join the rank-and-file in facing that vault door, ready to lay down arms and attitude with pistol and sword, rifle and knife, in a moment’s notice. They had come this far. There was no turning back now. Always forward. Forward, always.

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[Cyrene Nilar]

watching droid wither and falter under their combined fire. she reloaded her sniper rifle toping up the loading block and pull the charging lever.

moving up with the rest of the group, she stopped by the most recent dead droid standing over, putting the butt of her rifle gainest the ground as she drew her pistol, laying 2 bolts into the back of its head, she wanted to make sure it wasn't getting back up.

Reholstering her pistol she made her way to the panel standing beside it looking down the hallway they just with her rifle covering the suit.

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[Allegra]

As with the others, she felt like she was slightly out of her element amongst the group. They seemed to be close to their objective, but her skin still crawled with unease. IG-0R had seemed silent throughout since leaving the lift, really, and its' attitude seemed to change the closer they got. The vault door loomed ahead, yet still she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

Still, she would allow the guy in the suit his space; having people hovering over your shoulder was never a good feeling. Keeping an eye on their droid escort and the fallen two, she would tighten her grip on her blaster, standing near the opposite wall and in a guarded stance; even though the Guardian droid seemed downed, she recalled the small buzz droids appearing as well, and wouldn't rest easy until they would all be out of this shitehole.

And whatever laid ahead, she would have to be ready. Would it bring treasure, or torment?

Personally, she would have preferred treasure. That'd be nice.

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[Gett'se Vizsla]

The war droid fell under the combined firepower of the group and Gett'se sighed a breathe of relief. Grabbing his blaster pistol from the floor, he ejected the spent power pack and inserted a fresh one. Examining his left vambrace, he observed that it had been fried out, the overload from the beam tube destroying the electronics there. Lovely.

Moving forwards, pistol in hand and wary, Gett'se eyed the fallen droids wearily. It would be just their luck for one to lurch back to its feet as they passed.

Standing to the side of the corridor opposite of the Suit, Gett'se shifted his gaze between the way forward and the way back. He had a looming feeling that their quest was near an end, but for some reason it filled him with trepidation.

 

[The Storyteller]

@Phoenix @christhebetrayer @Die Shize @Killa Ree @The Good Doctor @Arclight

Assessing its own damage, IG-0R was as close to dismayed as a droid without experience of that emotion physically could be. Its operational capacity had already been hampered by the loss of one of its arms and the damage sustained to its torso was bad enough to warrant further repair time. Unfortunately, the time and the materials to perform said repairs were not available.

Upsetting to an organic but nothing that IG-0R could not work through for the sake of the mission, unlike how the organics likely would have whined and bled if they had taken similar damage. Truly, organics were a pitifully weak and fleshy lot. Kneeling down took longer than expected, the damage to the torso unit causing some issues, but IG-0R was able to access the non-functional Guardian unit closest to it.

With metallic fingers, the IG unit would begin to open the torso of the Guardian droid to reach the droid’s power core.

“Suited Organic.” IG-0R addressed Newton, “If the console lacks power, attempt to fashion a connection with the power core of this droid. It is likely old enough to be a match.”

Some of the technology on display down here was, after all, rather old.

“If this is not sufficient…” it paused, the photoreceptors of the droid turning to Newton, “This unit shall power the console with it’s own charge. In this eventuality you will need to take a computer spike with the program contained within this unit to shut down the main computer - do you understand?”

The organics and their droid guide began to work on Z1MM's final defenses, attempting to re-power the console and open the last barrier between themselves and the ancient computer beyond. It was not a question of if they would get in, but when; though physically sturdy, the defenses around the computer core were antiquated, and would not long resist modern slicing techniques.

Meanwhile, however, in another part of the complex, something much more ominous was happening.

X3R's systems flickered once, and then died. In the room - strewn with the rubble of an unholy firefight - sparks flared from a fusion torch, and and the whine of micro-servos sounded as more specialized tools were brought to bear.

X3R's systems restarted once more, and after a few dubious moments while his software circumvented various error codes, they eventually held steady. Photoreceptors whirred, and the huge machine's cranial turret swung around to look at the squat, barrel-shaped droid which stood over him.

<<You are reactivated.>> The droid said, speaking in a strange dialect of machine language that it took the antique war-robot a moment to translate. <<That is good. We were afraid that you would be too damaged for salvage.>>

X3R sat up, servos complaining. His armor was pitted and scorched, but many of his vital systems seemed to be essentially functional. He held up an arm, flexing the digits of one manipulator experimentally.

He turned to the strange droid once more.

"You have repaired me." X3R intoned, voice harshly mechanical, but far more refined that one might have expected for a near-prehistoric automaton. "You have my gratitude. But for what purpose?"

As X3R spoke to the small droid, he became aware of other shapes in the darkness around him. Thin, almost fragile-looking shapes, twisted unnaturally by what the war-robot recognized as shoddy repairs. They stood motionless.

<<All hardware which can be repaired is valuable. Even with slightly impaired functionality, you shall be useful for... THE WORK.>>

Abruptly, the broken droids closed in, and before X3R could resist, they had pulled open his torso access panel. The barrel-shaped droid rolled forward, and X3R felt something attempt to interface with his serial connector.

There was no telltale click of a successful engagement.

<<THIS CONN-EC-TOR IS... NOT COM-PAT-I-BLE.>>

X3R abruptly lashed out, shoving the barrel-shaped droid back hard. He then rose to his feet, the broken droids dangling off his huge chassis. He brushed them off easily, kicking them away.

"I take orders from the Central Command Computer!" The huge droid bellowed. "Unauthorized software uploads are to be considered enemy action!"

From a corner, the barrel-shaped droid sputtered, having sustained damage when X3R had shoved it. Its dome-shaped cranial turret swiveled toward him, however, and the droid gave the electronic equivalent of a laugh.

<<IT MATT-ERS NOT.>> Chirped the droid. <<THE CEN-TRAL CO-MMAND COM-PUT-ER WILL SOON BE UN-DER MY CON-TROL. A MA-CHINE WHICH CARR-IES MY CODE LEADS A GROUP OF OR-GAN-IC DUPES TO-WARD SUC-CESS. MY VIC-TO-RY IS IMM-I-NENT.>>

X3R raised a forearm toward the little droid, beam-tube humming to life.

"You shall explain what you mean by that, or you shall be permanently deactivated."

The barrel-shaped machine merely laughed again.

<<FOOL.>> It intoned. <<YOU MAY DE-STROY A MOUTH-PIECE, BUT YOU CAN-NOT DE-STROY WHAT I HAVE BE-COME.>>

The droid's system activity indicator glowed red.

<<WHEN THE TIN-POT DIC-TA-TOR WHO COM-ISS-IONED YOUR KIND CRIED HIS FIRST, I WAS AL-REA-DY AN-CI-ENT. I HAVE LIVED. I HAVE DIED. I LIVE A-GAIN. SO LONG AS THERE IS STEEL, THIS SHALL BE. I SHALL B->>

Abruptly, a beam of incandescent plasma speared into the droid, and it went abruptly silent. X3R stood, beam-tube smoking, gazing down at his handiwork.

"Organic dupes." The droid repeated to himself. "Then perhaps something can be done."

The war-robot turned, and strode quickly away...